As expected, no joint declaration at G20 Foreign Ministers meeting too

New Delhi: The G20 joint declaration for the second time running in the G20 important meetings in New Delhi could not be issued and will substitute with the summary of the proceedings. The disagreement on the Russia-Ukraine crisis continued. 

While speaking to some of the media persons after the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Group of 20 talks would not issue a joint declaration with host India, instead releasing a summary.

"The declaration was blocked, and the outcome of the discussion will be described in the summary that the Indian presidency would speak about," Lavrov told reporters through an interpreter after the talks in New Delhi.

The Russian Foreign Minister and US Secretary spoke more on the issue of the Ukraine crisis, dominated by the Ukraine war.

"Discussions over the joint statement faltered on several issues, including Russia's insistence on an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline last year. Media reports quoting Lavrov said. Russia and Western countries have traded accusations of responsibility for the September explosions.

Reports say that the final draft of the two-day Foreign Ministers meeting is being prepared, and officials will soon release the "chair's summary and outcome document." 

On February 25, the meeting of the finance ministers for the G 20 countries was held at Bengaluru and ended without a joint statement. Most G20 member nations condemned the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, but China and Russia declined to sign the joint statement. 

Earlier, while inaugurating the G 20 meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "You are meeting at a time of deep global divisions. As Foreign Ministers, it is natural that your discussions are affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day. We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved."

The Prime Minister further added, "The world looks upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth; development; economic resilience; disaster resilience; financial stability; transnational crime; corruption; terrorism; and food and energy security. In all these areas, the G20 has the capacity to build consensus and deliver concrete results. We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can."

Testing time for the Indian leadership

Like the "Bali declaration", the world expects India to be able to play a neutral role and do maximum in building a bridge to erase the gap between the West and Russia. Can India, arrive at a consensus-driven outcome ahead of the central G 20 summit in September 2023? 

It will be a great success and recognition for India if they achieve even ten per cent of the success in ironing out differences over the Ukraine conflict that are so visibly divided.

Will India be able to mediate and bring all parties to an agreement? Some media reports suggest that India, under the leadership of the Indian Prime Minister, is already using its offices with the top leadership to bring some solution to the crisis.

It remains a big challenge, and all eyes are on India to maintain good relations with Russia and the West and get some results in coordinating the two sides of the dispute. 

It is more challenging when the tug of war between the US and its Western allies versus Russia and China over the conflict in Ukraine intensifies, with no one willing to compromise.