Ukraine war divides Group of 20 gathering, with no consensus statement issued
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms that Russia and China refused to sign the foreign ministers’ joint declaration
- Moscow says the Russian and Chinese ministers rejected ‘attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries’
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine divided the Group of 20 foreign ministers’ gathering in New Delhi on Thursday, with no consensus statement produced at the end of the summit – pointing to a deeper rift compared with last year’s meetings.
At his news briefing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that Russia and China refused to sign the ministers’ statement, which reaffirmed the declaration G20 leaders issued last year in Bali. That declaration condemned the war in Ukraine for “causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in a global economy”.
“Russia and China were the only two countries that made clear that they would not sign on to that text,” Biden said.
India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters that the second high-level ministerial meeting under India’s G20 presidency would have culminated in a “collective statement” if there had been a “perfect meeting of minds on all issues”.
“There were differences on the Ukraine issue which we could not reconcile between various parties who have differing positions,” he said.