India released a “Chairman’s Summary” stating that “the majority of members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine”.
Bengaluru:
G20 finance ministers failed to agree on a joint statement on the global economy at talks in India on Saturday, after China sought to tone down references to the Ukraine war.
Instead the current G20 chair India released a “Chairman’s Summary” stating that “the majority of members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine” and that there were “differing assessments of the situation and sanctions” at the two-day meeting in Bengaluru. .
A footnote states that two paragraphs in the summary about the war, which was adapted from the G20 Bali leaders’ declaration in November, were “agreed upon by all member states except Russia and China”.
Spain’s representative Nadia Calvino earlier said it was “difficult” to agree on a statement, due to a “less constructive” approach by some unspecified countries in talks between the world’s top 20 economies.
China wanted to change the language of the statement from November, officials told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that Beijing wanted to remove the word “war”.
Previous meetings of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs have also failed to produce a common communiqué after Russia, a member of the grouping, invaded its neighbor last February.
China has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.
Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi was in Moscow on Wednesday to meet President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who are due to attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi next week.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Wang as saying that China is keen to “deepen political trust” and “strengthen strategic coordination” with Russia.
On Friday, the first anniversary of the invasion, China published a 12-point letter calling for a “political solution” to the crisis that was met with skepticism from Ukraine’s allies.
G20 host India has also refused to condemn Russia, which is New Delhi’s biggest arms supplier and has become a major source of oil for India since the invasion.
Western countries, including the United States, Germany and France, had stressed that the language of any joint statement could not dilute the communiqué issued by G20 leaders in Indonesia in November.
“This is a war. And this war has a reason, a reason, and that is Russia and Vladimir Putin,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told a news conference on Friday. should be done.”
debt relief
The gathering also focused on debt relief for poor countries affected by rising inflation caused by the war.
The International Monetary Fund said ahead of the meeting that about 15 percent of low-income countries were in debt distress and an additional 45 percent were at high risk.
Western officials, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, called on China to take a “haircut” on its loans to debt-ridden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka.
China wants multilateral lenders including the World Bank – which Beijing sees as Western-controlled – to restructure its debts as well, but the United States and others oppose this.
Other topics in Bengaluru included efforts towards a global tax on tech giants, and widening the remit of multilateral development banks such as the World Bank to help countries affected by climate change.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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