Close on the heels of the grand success of G-20 Summit in New Delhi under India’s Presidency in September, New Delhi is hosting the Parliamentary outreach of P-20 under its rubric. Presiding officers which includes Speakers, chairmen and their deputies play a very important role in international relations and public diplomacy supplementing and complementing the role of the executive. Parliaments and their presiding officers occupy a very exalted position in the warrant of precedent in the packing order immediately below the position of the head of the state or the government. The conference which begins from 12th of October will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13th at the newly built India International Convention Centre in the sub-city Dwarka. Besides, the Presiding Officers of the G-20 countries, ten other countries and entities and the President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) have also been invited to the Summit. The two-day Summit will have brainstorming sessions on topics such as sustainable development, energy transformation, women for development, transformation in People’s livelihood through public digital platforms, areas in which India has excelled and which can be showcased to the world with the theme ‘Parliament for one earth, one family, one future’.
This international conference of Speakers is taking place at a very critical juncture in world politics with the fieriest fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinians and the ongoing war in Ukraine. In such a grim scenario of geo-politics causing great human tragedy and suffering, the Summit can hardly be oblivious to the human catastrophe notwithstanding its structured agenda for deliberation. If the Delhi Declaration of G-20, could articulate a cogent stance with regards to the vexed Ukraine issue, it is generally expected that the P-20 summit will allude to the burning Middle East issue in passing and it will be certainly reflected in its deliberations by the participating presiding officers. As Prime Minister Modi has already voiced India’s support to Israel in unequivocal words, it is expected that he will also allude to the situation and urge for immediate cessation of hostilities. Prime Minister Modi has the unique distinction of having visited both Israel and Palestine and as such he may like to avail the Summit platform to articulate his concerns in his inaugural address. It is unfortunate that due to ongoing stalemate in US Congress following the resignation of the Speaker, there may not be any representative from the US.
Notwithstanding the fact that the ambit of Parliamentary Summits like P-20 have a very limited role to impact geo-politics, they do exercise symbolic, if not substantive, influence and salience. It is worthwhile to recall what the late lamented Mikhail Gorbachev of Glasnost and Perestroika fame said in this context. He said, “Parliament along with the government are becoming increasingly active participants in international contacts, and this was an encouraging development. It points to a trend towards greater democracy in international relations.” These kind of summit diplomacy is a variant of Parliamentary diplomacy which facilitates defining problems, exchanging views and working cooperatively finding solutions to common problems. As a mechanism for the conduct of international relations, it cannot, however, guarantee agreement. Its salience, however, should not be trivialised as mere rhetoric. Presiding officers of Parliaments and Parliamentarians sometimes play quasi diplomatic roles. The role the US Congress played in the military withdrawal of the United States from the quagmire of Vietnam was an eloquent testimony to the triumph of voice of sanity. While the traditions of executive diplomacy demand nuanced treatment of issues, deliberations between and among parliamentarians are usually more frank and can go beyond the parenthetical grammar of executive diplomacy. Such summits and conferences provide a venue to put across the views of member states as well as groups of citizens whose opinions may not necessarily be reflected by their countries before the world.
Yet another important derivative of such summits and conferences is the utility of the informal meetings on the margins of the conferences. It is not widely known that at least technically, the Presiding Officers are independent of the executive which affords them a unique position to engage in diplomacy without supplanting the role of the executive. This needs to be leveraged thoughtfully. Two illustrations which have a bearing on India’s foreign policy amply demonstrates the salience of parliamentary outreach. First is at a time when India-Canada outreach has reached its nadir and efforts are afoot to repair them. It is not clear if the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada will be participating in the Summit. If he is, then the opportunity can be availed to engage with Canada on the vexed issue of Khalistani militancy in Canada. Similarly, perhaps the Speaker of Maldives Parliament who has shown some positive overture in a recent media interview towards India perhaps could have been thoughtfully invited as an observer to the Summit. Of course, the new regime in Maldives will be formally sworn on 17th November.
India should also consider reviving the SAARC Speakers and Presiding Officers Conference to reach out to their Speakers and legislators, particularly at a time when China’s footprints in South Asia including in the island nation Maldives is increasing. New Delhi should adopt a bipartisan approach to reach out and engage with Parliamentarians in South Asia. Domestically also Parliamentarians in India should adopt a bipartisan approach on foreign policy issues having a bearing on national interest. The opposition parties may be in Opposition today, who knows they will be on the other side of the fence tomorrow. A binary approach to foreign policy will be only detrimental to the country’s national interest and national security.
The writer is a former senior fellow of Monohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Indian Council of Social Sciences Research.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
