G20 Summit: Meet these ‘two brilliant officers’ who worked on New Delhi Declaration
The team of diplomats held 300 meetings and circulated 15 drafts with their counterparts on the contentious Ukraine conflict.
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said it took more than “200 hours of non-stop negotiations” by a team of Indian diplomats to deliver a consensus on the G20 declaration that was adopted at the 18th Leaders' Summit in New Delhi.
The team of diplomats, including joint secretaries Eenam Gambhir and Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, held 300 bilateral meetings and circulated 15 drafts with their counterparts on the contentious Ukraine conflict to drive home a consensus that was clinched on the first day of the G20 Leaders Summit itself.
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"The most complex part of the entire #G20 was to bring consensus on the geopolitical paras (Russia-Ukraine). This was done over 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings, 15 drafts. In this, I was greatly assisted by two brilliant officers -@NagNaidu08 &@eenamg," Kant wrote on X (formally Twitter) and shared a picture of him with them.
Kant said he was greatly assisted in the efforts by Naidu and Gambhir.
Who is Eenam Gambhir?
- Eenam Gambhir is currently serving as a joint secretary G20 and the ministry of external affairs, New Delhi.
- A 2005-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Gambhir, in her position in the G20 Secretariat, deals with handling G20-related issues including the preparations for India's G20 Presidency.
- Prior to this, Gambhir served as a senior adviser on Peace and Security issues in the Office of the President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN HQ in New York.
- Gambhir has also served in Indian embassies in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Argentina and is a fluent Spanish speaker.
- Gambhir has also dealt with issues relating to India’s neighborhood especially Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in different capacities while working in New Delhi from 2011 till 2016.
- She also served in the permanent mission of India to the UN in New York and covered political and peace and security issues till June 2019.
- Gambhir holds two masters degrees – masters of sciences in mathematics from Delhi University and masters in advanced international security from the University of Geneva.
Who Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur?
- Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, currently serving as a joint secretary, is the Chinese speaker in the team. He was reportedly a lead negotiator on the Ukraine conflict paragraphs.
- Kakanur has served as the chef de cabinet to the President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
- Prior to this, Kakanur was the deputy permanent representative of India to the United Nations.
- A career diplomat, Kakanur is a 1998-batch Indian Foreign Service officer.
- Kakanur is a fluent Chinese speaker and has served in China in four separate stints.
- At the Indian embassy in Beijing, Kakanur served as third and second secretary (special projects) between 2000 and 2003.
- Between 2003 and 2006, he served as Consul (political and commercial) at the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong. From 2009 to 2012, he served as first secretary and counsellor (economic and commercial affairs) at the Indian embassy in Beijing.
- He took over as the Consul General at the Indian Consulate in Guangzhou, China from 2013 to 2015.
- After his return to the foreign ministry in New Delhi, Naidu served as the joint secretary/director general of the economic diplomacy division in the ministry of external affairs from 2015 to 2017.
- Kakanur has a master’s in law and diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy.
New Delhi Declaration
India managed to hammer out an unexpected consensus among the G20 countries on the contentious issue with emerging economies such as Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia playing a leading role in reaching the breakthrough.
The G20 leaders' declaration avoided mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and made a general call to all states to follow the principle of respecting each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
"We call on all states to uphold the principles of international law, including territorial integrity and sovereignty, international humanitarian law, and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability," the declaration said.
