A summitry cheat sheet: How leaders connect and talk the talk at global summits

How much talk can you cram in just two days? At the G20 Summit, it's a meeting marathon for Prime MInister Narendra Modi as every guest leader wants to talk to the host. During the summit, PM Modi is holding 15 bilateral meetings with other heads of states. But summit conferences are not just about bilateral meetings. They also have various other kinds of interactions on the margins and during dinners.

Summit diplomacy, or summitry, as it has come to be called, has become an essential part of diplomacy today, and most heads of states too like summitry for the ease and comfort of negotiation at the very top which could otherwise remain stuck in lower diplomatic channels. Yet, summitry is not easy and for the novices, it could be downright risky too. Heads of states running into each other in a milieu where protocol is loose has its own rewards as well as risks.

Bilats, brush-bys and pull-asides
Summitry helps build personal chemistry between heads of states due to easy face-to-face interaction. But multilateral summits, such as the G20, where 20 world leaders are present are complex affairs to manage due to paucity of time. They could well be called marathon speed dating as the leaders are meeting each other for very short periods.


Bilats, or bilaterals, where the two leaders sit down and talk to each other, are full-fledged meetings and the longest type. They can easily stretch beyond an hour. But there are a lot of short formats too such as pull-asides, brush-bys and walk-and-talks. Pull asides, as the name suggests, are meetings between two leaders on the margins of the main activities where they meet for a short period which could be just 10 minutes. Brush-bys are more casual and can be even shorter. All the summit meetings are pre-planned, though brush-bys and walk-and-talks can have an impromptu element to them. The format of the meeting depends on the importance of the leaders. Modi and US President Joe Biden had a full-fledged bilateral yesterday while PM Modi will have just a brush-by with Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau and many European leaders.

Sherpas and sous sherpas of different leaders plan the meetings in advance. The word 'summit' comes from mountaineering and is used metaphorically for conferences where the topmost leaders take part. The assistants of these leaders, top diplomats who ensure the nitty-gritty behind the final meetings and negotiations that lead to meetings between two heads of states, are called sherpas and the diplomats assigned specific duties are called sous sherpas, literally 'below sherpa'. In mountaineering, sherpas accompany climbers to carry heavy loads. Thus sherpas and sous sherpas at summits are responsible to prepare the ground for the meetings of leaders.

There are specific terms for press interaction too such as pool spray, a very brief photo opportunity for media often lasting less than a minute.

Corridor work
Corridor work, or quick unscheduled interactions while walking in corridors, is another format of interaction at the summits. It may sound trivial but it has a great purpose to serve. Corridor diplomacy works often between hostile countries which have no diplomatic interaction by breaking the ice. A supposedly chance encounter in a corridor at a summit and a handshake and the customary smile with it can be played up as a new diplomatic opening between the two hostile countries. It can lead to more significant interaction later on.

How summitry started
Though kings and sovereigns have been meeting face to face for long, the present form of summitry started in Europe during the Cold War. The term was coined by Winston Churchill who had used the mountaineering metaphor to suggest that peace can be achieved if direct interaction happened at the highest level. He called it "a parley at the summit". The meeting between leaders of the US, the UK, France and the Soviet Union at Geneva in 1955 was thus called a summit by the media, and the term gained currency after that.

Summitry has grown to be a popular diplomatic institution and its importance can only grow further in an increasingly multilateral world as more countries can influence global issues and turn into significant global players.

The personal and cultural challenges
The easy, casual interaction between head of states offers a great opportunity to thaw relations and reach broader agreement which may be tough to achieve through the usual diplomatic processes. However, since summits mean individual personalities come into play in diplomacy, there could be challenges not faced by diplomats who are trained to conduct diplomacy in an impersonal manner. Personal quirks of a leader can put negotiations on unexpected tracks.

Then there are the cultural challenges. Not all the heads of states are cosmopolitan personalities familiar with foreign cultures. In his book, 'Negotiating Across Cultures', Raymond Cohen pointed out the dominant international style of diplomacy based on "Anglo-Saxon" values. He wrote that the Anglo-Saxon approach was direct and individual-centred and prefers getting to the point and speaking straight. But leaders from Asian cultures, which value relationships, could be more oblique in their approach since they first want to build trust. This contrast between individualist and relational cultures can jeopardise negotiations especially at initial levels.