ToThe Ukrainian conflict has divided the participants of the G20, the Ukrainian conflict has divided the participants of the G20 ministerial meeting — they have not been able to agree on a final joint statement. But in New Delhi, the first contact between Sergey Lavrov and Anthony Blinken took place since the beginning of hostilities
How the Ukrainian conflict did not allow to coordinate the statement
The meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 member countries held in New Delhi on March 2, the main event before the summit of the leaders of the G20 in September 2023, ended without an official joint statement: the foreign ministers could not agree on wording related to the Ukrainian conflict. This was announced by Indian Foreign Minister SubramanyamJaishanankar. “Given the polarization of opinions about Ukraine, consensus could not be reached. There are cases when we do not have an agreement between the G20 countries,” he stated. According to Bloomberg, Russia and China at the meeting in New Delhi also insisted that in the final document military actions in Ukraine should not be called a war. Officially, Russia is talking about a special military operation.
Instead of the final statement approved by all participants following the meeting of the Foreign Ministers, a summary compiled by the chairman was released (since December 1 last year, this is India). It states that “the majority of the members condemned”the conflict in Ukraine, which “negatively affects the global economy”. The summary notes that “there were different views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions”. “Realizing that the G20 is not a platform for solving security problems, we recognize that these problems can have serious consequences for the global economy,” the document states.
A similar situation happened a week earlier at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the G20, where representatives of Russia and China also disagreed with the wording of other participants. Bloomberg, citing unnamed Indian officials, reported that Delhi was upset by this outcome. After the meeting of finance ministers and heads of central banks, a summary of the meeting from its chairman was also distributed.
Bloomberg emphasizes that the fate of the final statement casts doubt on whether it will be possible to agree on a common document at the summit of heads of state in September.
«Big Twenty» (also G20, G-20, «Group of Twenty»)the club of governments and heads of central banks of the states with the most developed and developing economies. This year the club is chaired by India, so the events are held on its territory.
The previous leaders’ summit, held on September 15 and 16 last year in Bali, ended with the adoption of a document stating that the majority of G20 representatives strongly condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but the Russian side insisted on indicating the existence of alternative points of view in it.
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What the forum participants said
Before the ministers’ meeting, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed them via video link, who urged the participants not to allow the existing disagreements and tensions to hinder the achievement of agreements on food and energy security and climate. “We meet in times of deepglobal disagreements,” Modi said, noting that they create tension in international relations. “We all have our own positions and views on how to resolve this tension. We should not allow problems that we cannot solve together to interfere with solving those that we can,” Modi is quoted by the AP agency.
The Ukrainian conflict has become the main topic of speeches by the foreign ministers of Western countries. German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said that “one member of the G20 prevents all the other 19 from focusing all their efforts on the issues for which the G20 was created,” meaning Russia. Then she appealed to the Russian minister to “end this war”. “I ask you, Mr. Lavrov, to return to the full implementation of START-3 (the treaty with the United States on strategic offensive arms, the validity of which was suspended by Russia.—RBC) and resume dialogue with the United States,” Reuters quotes her.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the G20 meeting was overshadowed by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, and said it was necessary to continue calls for Russia to stop military actions for the sake of international peace and economic stability.
Dutch Foreign Minister Vopke Hoekstra appealed to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to warn about the negative consequences of possible arms supplies to Moscow. “What is important and what I have conveyed to each of my colleagues, including my Chinese colleague, is that, you know, the truth is not somewhere in the middle, only one country is to blame, and that is Russia. Therefore, everyone else should refrain from providing military assistance to Russia,” he said.
Sergey Lavrov did not remain in debt. “I would like to apologize to the Indian presidency and colleagues from the countries of the global South for the indecent behavior of a number of Western delegations, who turned the work on the agenda of the G20 into a farce in an attempt to shift their responsibility for failures in economic policy to others, primarily to Russia,”mdash; he said (quote from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). At a press conference following the meeting, the Minister also commented on the calls fornegotiations on the Ukrainian conflict. According to him, Russia “never refuses serious proposals that are made out of a sincere desire to find a political solution.” He noted that he did not remember that any of the representatives of Western countries called for negotiations in Kiev. “Probably, this has its own serious truth, because Ukraine is just being set up for the continuation of the war,” Lavrov said.
How the conversation between Lavrov and Blinken became the main sensation of the meeting
The meeting in New Delhi was the first venue where Lavrov and Blinken found themselves in the same room since July 2022, when they participated in the meeting of the “Twenty” in Indonesia. In the same month, the first and only telephone conversation took place since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, dedicated, according to the US State Department, to the issue of exchangeAmerican citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. (Last December, Brittney Griner, convicted in Russia for drug smuggling, was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian convicted in the United States for illegal arms trafficking. Former US Marine Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia in 2020 on espionage charges, continues to serve his sentence.)
On Thursday afternoon, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that the ministers had a brief conversation. Blinken asked for contact with Lavrov. On the move, during the second session of the “Twenty”, Sergey Viktorovich talked. There were no negotiations, meetings and so on,” she told reporters.
Later, the official representative of the United States clarified that the conversation lasted about ten minutes, and during this time Blinken told the interlocutor three theses: The United States will continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary until the conflict ends; Russia must return to implementing START 3; finally, it must release Whelan. Zakharova did not disclose the details of the conversation between the Russian minister and the US Secretary of State, but noted to RIA Novosti that Lavrov responded to all Blinken’s calls in his usual manner.
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