Finance chiefs of the world’s largest economies on Saturday strongly condemned Moscow for its war against Ukraine, while only China and Russia refused to sign a joint declaration.
India, which as chairman of the Group of 20 (G20) economies was organizing a meeting in the city of Bangalore, was reluctant to raise the issue of war, but Western nations insisted they could not endorse any outcome that did not include a condemnation.
The lack of total consensus among G20 members caused India to resort to issuing a “president’s summary” in which it simply summarized the two days of talks and pointed out disagreements.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and emphasized that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy,” he said, citing disruption of supply chains, risks to financial stability and continued energy and food insecurity.
“There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions,” he said, referring to measures implemented by the United States, European countries and others to punish Russia for the invasion and deprive it of revenue.
The outcome was similar to that of a G20 summit in Bali last November when host Indonesia also issued a final statement acknowledging the differences. The G20, formed over two decades to deal with economic crises, has increasingly struggled to reach consensus among members.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier told Reuters it was “absolutely necessary” for any statement to condemn Russia. Two delegates told Reuters that Russia and China did not want the G20 platform to be used to discuss political issues.
Russia, a member of the G20 but not the G7, refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation” and avoids calling it invasion or war.
India has maintained a largely neutral stance on the war, refusing to blame Russia for the invasion, seeking a diplomatic solution and sharply increasing its purchases of Russian oil.
India and China were among the nations that abstained on Thursday as the U.N. voted overwhelmingly to demand Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine and cease fighting.
DEBT NEGOTIATIONS
In parallel, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a meeting with the World Bank, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the G7 on Saturday on restructuring the debt of struggling economies, but there were disagreements among members, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
“We have just finished a session in which it has become clear that there is a commitment to bridge differences for the benefit of countries,” Georgieva, who co-chaired the roundtable with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, told reporters.
One delegate told Reuters that some initial progress had been made, particularly on the language around the issue, but that restructuring had not been discussed in detail.
The expert group is expected to continue discussing the issue during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in April.
Pressure has been mounting on China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, and other countries to accept a large write-down on debt to struggling developing nations.
In a video address at the G20 meeting on Friday, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun reiterated Beijing’s position that the World Bank and other multilateral development banks should also be involved in debt relief through haircuts.
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