Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday accused the West of not holding an intelligent discussion on Ukraine and said that the Global South countries helped avoid the Ukraine war issue overshadow New Delhi G20 Summit agenda. Addressing a press conference in Delhi after the conclusion of the G20 India Summit 2023, Lavrov hailed India’s presidency for consolidating the G20 members for the first time in the history.

“I would like to mention is the active role of the Indian presidency that has genuinely consolidated the G 20 Members probably for the first time in its history. I mean the G 20 countries from the Global South, our BRICS partners – Brazil, India, China, South Africa have been particularly active.

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“Thanks to these consolidated positions taken by the global south countries to uphold and protect their legitimate interests have caused the West to be unable to Ukrainise the agenda to the detriment of the discussion of the tasks facing developing countries,” the Russian foreign minister said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that consensus has been built on the G20 New Delhi Leader’s Declaration, including the geopolitical issue of Russia and Ukraine war. The joint declaration adopted by the G20 New Delhi Summit deplores wars and other armed conflicts in Ukraine and other parts of the world. However, it didn’t directly blame Russia for waging war against Ukraine.

Without direct reference to Russia, the declaration said that all government “must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or political independence of any state” while upholding the UN charter.

How Ukraine reacted to the G20 New Delhi Leader’s Declaration

Reacting to the New Delhi Leader’s Declaration, Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said it was “nothing to be proud of” and the country was disappointed with overall joint declaration after it failed to directly blame Russia for the war.

“It is clear that the participation of the Ukrainian side (in the G20 meeting) would have allowed the participants to better understand the situation,” Nikolenko said in a social media post.

However, Nikolenko, thanked partner countries for trying to include strong formulations in the declaration text.

“Ukraine is grateful to the partners who tried to include strong formulations in the text,” he added.