New Delhi, India – Streets have been cordoned off, schools and offices have been closed, street vendors have been asked to clear the streets, and decorations have been put up all over the Indian capital, including large billboards with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face.After months of preparations, India will host the Group of 20 (G20) summit this weekend, the largest gathering of leaders in the country in 40 years, since New Delhi hosted the Non-Aligned Movement and Commonwealth in 1983.

While the G20 summit has its own agenda, ranging from climate finance and debt relief to food security and public health, it is also an opportunity for the host country to bask in the spotlight and prove its diplomatic clout, analysts say. The host has the task of convincing the other G20 countries to agree on a joint agreement at the end of the summit, which will serve as the group’s roadmap for the next year."The best summary I’ve heard is that hosting the G20 summit is comparable to hosting the World Cup – it’s a big attraction and brings a lot of publicity and media attention that you would not have otherwise,” said Hari Seshasayee, a visiting scholar at the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi, and an Asia-Latin America expert.

"There’s no way this government would have received so much attention from international leaders otherwise.”more foreign ministers than usual attended the annual Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship conference on geopolitics.

As host, “you have the space to talk to these big, important countries, which otherwise wouldn’t happen” on this scale," Seshasayee said. “India is important, of course. But it’s becoming much more important than it normally would be … This administration has pushed as hard as it could to get other countries to talk about the G20.”But this focus on India as president of the G20 may be a double-edged sword. The G20 is now a deeply divided group with multiple powers and their competing agendas. In particular, Russia’s war in Ukraine since 2022 has fractured the group and impaired its ability to reach consensus on specific issues.This has presented India with a potentially embarrassing situation: If it fails to issue a joint communique on Sunday, it would be the first G20 summit to end without any agreement.

Indonesia, which held the previous presidency, also failed to reach consensus. It did, however, manage to issue a joint statement saying that most G20 members criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine, but some disagreed.

India wanted to "demonstrate its clout and show that it is an emerging power” and that it is ”capable of building consensus," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre.

Still, it may struggle to do even what Indonesia has administered: China and Russia have indicated that they will not be satisfied with the wording of the 2022 Declaration. And all indications are that the chief negotiators of the G20 members, who met recently on the sidelines of New Delhi, have so far been unable to agree on a common text.While it’s hard to say what will happen at the summit, which begins Saturday, India’s “goal is to make sure expectations are not too high,” Kugelman said.So far, New Delhi has taken the stance that it is the voice of the global South. That was the theme highlighted by Amitabh Kant, India’s lead G20 negotiator, at Friday's media briefing before the summit began.The joint declaration at the end of the summit, Kant said, will include “the voice of the global South and developing countries." In no other document in the world would the global South and developing countries have such a strong voice."

Meanwhile, the Indian government is doing what it can to promote its country. It has launched two advance the nation. In contrast to previous presidencies, it has hosted working group meetings in many regions of the nation in an effort to promote tourism, possible investment sites, and future conclave locations.

In advance of the 2019 state and national elections, it is widely anticipated that the Modi government would deploy local and international exposure for its political efforts. The G20 conference is often held in November, at the conclusion of the host country's presidency, but it would have conflicted with state elections, for which Modi typically runs a vigorous campaign. However, with three leaders withdrawing, India's ability to use the summit as evidence of its diplomatic might has already been weakened. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, president of Mexico. There have never been so many leader absences at a G20 conference before. Among the absent leaders, Xi's absence will be felt the most because he oversees the second-largest economy in the world and has never before missed a G20 conference.

"This will be seen as a negative signal from China - both in bilateral and global relations," said Ashok Kantha, a former secretary in India's foreign ministry where he managed contacts with 65 nations. According to Kantha, a former Indian ambassador to Beijing, "it sends a signal that relations are still in a downward spiral and shows China's lack of commitment to the G20."

How well India can get over the rejection and resolve the conflicts within the group over the coming Over the next few years, how effectively India is able to get over that slight and resolve its internal conflicts.