New Delhi, India – Roads have been cordoned off, faculties and places of work have been closed, street vendors have been ordered to filter out, and decorations, together with giant billboards with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face on them, are plastered throughout the Indian capital.

After months of heady preparation, India will this weekend host the Group of 20 (G20) Summit, the most important gathering of world leaders within the nation in 40 years, since New Delhi held the Non-Aligned Motion and the Commonwealth, each in 1983.

Whereas the G20 has its agenda, which incorporates the whole lot from local weather finance and debt waivers to meals safety and public well being, additionally it is a chance for the host nation to bask within the limelight and show its diplomatic clout, based on analysts. The host is tasked with convincing different nations within the G20 to conform to a standard settlement on the finish of the summit, which serves because the group’s roadmap for the following yr.

“The perfect abstract I’ve heard is that internet hosting the G20 is like being the host of the diplomatic World Cup – it’s a giant draw and a whole lot of publicity and media consideration which you wouldn’t have in any other case,” Mentioned Hari Seshasayee, a visiting fellow on the Observer Analysis Basis, a New Delhi assume tank, and an Asia-Latin America skilled.

“There’s no means this authorities would have gotten a lot consideration from worldwide leaders in any other case.”

That was seen earlier this yr in March when many extra overseas ministers than ordinary attended the annual Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship convention on geopolitics.

As host, “you’ve got the house to speak to those massive necessary international locations that in any other case wouldn’t occur” to this extent, Seshasayee mentioned. “India is necessary, after all. Nevertheless it’s getting much more significance than it usually would … This authorities has squeezed as a lot as they might to get different nations to speak concerning the G20.”

However that concentrate on India because the president of the G20 can be doubtlessly a double-edged sword. The G20 is a deeply divided group at this time with a number of powers and their competing agendas. Russia’s battle in Ukraine since 2022 has particularly splintered the group, hampering its skill to seek out consensus on points.

That has left India dealing with a doubtlessly embarrassing prospect: A failure to place out a joint communique on Sunday would make this the primary G20 summit to culminate with none settlement.

Indonesia, which helmed the earlier presidency, additionally didn’t construct a consensus. Nevertheless it managed to situation a joint declaration that acknowledged that almost all members of the G20 criticised Russia’s battle in Ukraine, however that some disagreed.

India desires “to showcase its clout and desires to point out its rising energy” and that “it has the flexibility to ship” a consensus, mentioned Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute on the Wilson Heart.

But, it would battle to do even what Indonesia managed: China and Russia have indicated that they won’t accept the wording of the 2022 declaration. And all indications counsel that the chief negotiators of G20 members, who met on the outskirts of New Delhi not too long ago, have to date didn’t conform to a standard textual content.

Whereas it’s laborious to say what would possibly occur on the precise summit beginning Saturday, India’s “aim is to make sure that expectations should not sky excessive,” Kugelman mentioned.

For now, the stance that New Delhi has taken is that it’s the voice of the International South. That was the theme that Amitabh Kant, India’s lead G20 negotiator, hammered on on the media briefing on Friday, forward of the beginning of the summit.

The joint declaration on the finish of the summit, he mentioned, can have “the voice of the International South and the creating international locations. No doc on the earth would have such a powerful voice for the International South and the creating international locations”.

In the meantime, the Indian authorities is doing what it will probably to advertise the nation. It has held working group conferences in several components of the nation – not the norm in previous presidencies – within the hope of drumming up tourism there in addition to showcasing potential websites for funding and future conclaves.

The Modi authorities is broadly anticipated to make use of home and international publicity for its political campaigns forward of upcoming state and nationwide elections. The G20 summit is normally held close to the top of the host’s presidency – which is in November – however that may have clashed with state votes for which Modi normally campaigns closely.

But, its skill to quote the summit for instance of India’s diplomatic heft has already taken successful, with three leaders dropping out: Chinese language President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. No earlier G20 summit has had so many absentees amongst leaders.

Of the lacking leaders, Xi’s absence will likely be felt essentially the most – he leads the world’s second-largest economic system and has by no means skipped a G20 summit previously.

“This will likely be seen as a unfavourable sign from China – each in bilateral and international relations,” mentioned Ashok Kantha, a former secretary in India’s overseas ministry the place he oversaw relations with 65 international locations. “It sends a sign that relations are nonetheless in a downward spiral and exhibits China’s lack of dedication to G20,” added Kantha, additionally a former Indian ambassador to Beijing.

How effectively India can overcome that snub and iron out the variations inside the group over the following two days would be the check of its diplomacy – and whether or not it will probably shine in its second within the solar.