Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today complimented India for hosting a ‘breakthrough’ G20 Summit and ensuring the forum was not ‘politicised’ by the West for condemning his country over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

”If you look at the New Delhi Declaration, there is no condemnation of Russia…the document is a victory of the Global South,” he said at a press conference here.

Mr Lavrov said the summit showed a path to the world to move forward on a range of challenges and demonstrated the strength and importance of the Global South. India, he said, played an important role in ”preventing the West” from taking forward their approach on many issues, including Ukraine.

The Russian minister also noted that the G20 Summit in New Delhi provided a direction towards fairness in global governance and global finance as well.

”I want to express my gratitude to India for preventing attempts to politicise the G20,” he said, adding a healthy solution has been found in the declaration regarding the need to strive for a clear and equitable balance of interest.

“It is a long way to go but this summit has been a milestone… I would also like to mention the active role of the Indian presidency that has genuinely consolidated the G20 countries from the Global South for the first time in history. Our BRICS partners – Brazil, India, China and South Africa have been particularly active and thanks to these consolidated positions taken by the Global South countries to uphold and protect their legitimate interests,” he said.

Mr Lavrov also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal to hold a virtual G20 session in November before the end of India’s G20 presidency to review the proposals made at the New Delhi Summit.

“While closing today’s session, PM Modi said that he would convene another G20 Summit via video conferencing in late November. It will be another opportunity for us to review the implementation of the agreements that we have reached today,” he said.

The Russian leader accused the Western countries of not fulfilling their promise about funds to deal with climate change.