No G20 Joint Statement After China Objects To Use Of “War” Over Ukraine

Bengaluru: 

G20 finance ministers failed Saturday to agree a joint statement on the global economy at talks in India, after China sought to water down references to the Ukraine war.

Instead current G20 president India issued a “chair’s summary” which said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine” and that there were “different assessments of the situation and sanctions” at the two-day meeting in Bengaluru.

A footnote said two paragraphs in the summary about the war, which it said were adapted from the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration in November, “were agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China”.

Spain’s representative Nadia Calvino had said earlier that because of “less constructive” approaches by some unspecified countries at the talks among the world’s top 20 economies, agreeing on a statement was “difficult”.

China wanted to change the language of the declaration from November, officials told AFP, with one saying on condition of anonymity that Beijing wished to remove the word “war”.

Previous meetings of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs have also failed to produce a common communique since Russia, a member of the grouping, invaded its neighbour last February.

Senior Indian official Ajay Seth said the Chinese and Russian representatives did not want to sign up to the wording on Ukraine because “their mandate is to deal with economic and financial issues”.