Britain, India, the US at the G20: Ménage à trois, not a love triangle
Britain is consorting with India, which maintains a tough but tender liaison with the United States, which has a long-standing arrangement with Britain
The logo of India’s year-long presidency of the G20. Image: GODL-India
The G20 summit currently underway in New Delhi, India, has a three-way relationship playing out in full view of the world. Britain is consorting with India, which maintains a tough but tender liaison with the United States, which has a long-standing arrangement with Britain. That’s a classic example of the three-person household, speaking to a certain stability in its formation, structure and tensions.
It is not a love triangle, a situation in which two entities pursue a third, who may or may not be simultaneously interested in someone entirely different.
The interplay between Britain, India and the US at the G20 underlines the ménage à trois aspect of their equation. As Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak flew into Delhi with his wife Akshata Murthy, all the talk in the British media was of a proposed trade deal with India. In India, the focus was on the country’s own sense of its growing stature on the world stage. The headline in one of India’s leading newspapers said it all, late on Friday (September 8) evening: “ On 1st visit as president, Joe Biden backs India for permanent UNSC seat”. The US, meanwhile, looked to harness the advantage it has in actually having its head of state present at the G20. That’s something the Chinese decided not do, with President Xi Jinping sending his prime minister instead. So too the Russians, with Vladimir Putin virtually holed up in Moscow for unspecified reasons and sending his foreign minister to the G20 in his stead. It’s not clear why Mr Putin has stayed away from this gala affair. Though he faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court due to the invasion of Ukraine, India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and would not be required to arrest him if he arrived. Whatever the reason for the China and Russia no-shows, the US is focussed on looking good on its own terms, as well it might. The New York Times headline summarised this: “At G20 in India, Biden Looks to Fill a Hole Left by Putin and Xi”.
Ultimately, diplomacy is an intricate dance, with each figure on the dance floor using nifty footwork and dexterous strategies to weave through the throng.
But a ménage à trois does complicate matters – and then some.
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