- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Finance leaders from world’s biggest economies on Saturday (25) failed to reach an agreement over the ongoing war in Ukraine and resolving the problem of debt burden of the developing nations that are facing distress, Reuters reported citing participants.
It was reported that the meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the G20 group of nations, hosted by India, was unlikely to witness a joint communique after its conclusion later in the day since there was no consensus on how to describe the conflict in Ukraine which completed a year on Friday (24), according to delegates.
While the US and its allies in the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations were stubborn in seeking a communique that would squarely condemn Russia for invading its western neighbour, the delegates from Russia and China were against it.
Russia, which is in the G20 but not in G7 (it was expelled after its annexation of Crimea in 2014), called its actions in the east European nation a “special military operation” and not an invasion or war, the Reuters report added.
Host India, which has a good relation with Russia as well as the west, has pressed the meeting to avoid using the word “war” in any communique, G20 officials told Reuters.
India, which took over the G20 presidency from Indonesia last December, has maintained a largely neutral stance on the conflict. It has declined to blame Russia for the military move and sought a diplomatic solution. It has sharply increased its purchases of oil from Russia.
On Thursday (23), India and China were among the countries that abstained when the United Nations voted overwhelmingly seeking Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and put an end to the fight.
A senior G20 source told Reuters that negotiations over the communique were difficult and unless there was a last-minute surprise, a consensus on the communique was unlikely to materialise and the meeting could conclude with a statement by the host nation summarising the talks.
“In the absence of a consensus, the option for India would be to issue a chair statement,” one official told Reuters.
India’s foreign, finance and information ministries did not immediately respond to requests from the news outlet seeking comment.
