Foreign ministers of the G20 countries on Thursday failed to come out with a joint statement due to sharp differences between the Western nations on the one side and the Russia-China combine on the other on the Ukraine conflict.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was left with no choice but to release a ”Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document” as the host of the meeting.
He admitted that there were “divergences” in the meeting and it could not arrive at a common position on the Ukraine war after foreign ministers held discussions at the start of a two-day event in Delhi under India’s presidency of the grouping. “There were issues and very frankly they were concerned with the Ukraine conflict. There were divergences. There were differences, which we could not be reconciled,” he said, explaining as to why there was an outcome document instead of a joint statement.
Sources said both Russia and China raised objections to the wording of the Ukraine war, thwarting attempts to come out with a joint statement. Last week too at a meeting in Bengaluru, the G20 finance ministers failed to agree on a common statement after Russia and China raised objections about the formulation of the Ukraine war.
Jaishankar said there were agreements on “the bulk of issues” involving the concerns of the global South. “There were a large number of issues on which there was agreement, like strengthening multilateralism, promoting food and energy security, climate change, gender issues, counter-terror…On the bulk of issues which concern the global south, there was a considerable meeting of minds that has been captured by outcome document,” he said.
“If we had a perfect meeting of minds on all issues, it would have been a collective statement. In terms of the outcome document, you will see that there was almost a 95 per cent agreement. Just, on two paras we were not able to get everybody on the same page – or para,” he said.