Ukraine war divides Group of 20 gathering, with no consensus statement issued
Russia's invasion of Ukraine divided the Group of 20 foreign ministers' gathering in New Delhi on Thursday, with no consensus statement produced at the end of the summit - pointing to a deeper rift compared with last year's meetings.
At his news briefing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that Russia and China refused to sign the ministers' statement, which reaffirmed the declaration G20 leaders issued last year in Bali. That declaration condemned the war in Ukraine for "causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in a global economy".
"Russia and China were the only two countries that made clear that they would not sign on to that text," Biden said.
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India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters that the second high-level ministerial meeting under India's G20 presidency would have culminated in a "collective statement" if there had been a "perfect meeting of minds on all issues".
"There were differences on the Ukraine issue which we could not reconcile between various parties who have differing positions," he said.
Blinken did not have a one-on-one conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the summit, but reiterated that "based on information we have", China was considering supplying lethal military assistance to Russia.
"We have sanctions of various kinds," Blinken warned, claiming that potential Chinese support to Russia in Ukraine was a "shared concern".
Many other G20 members had this apprehension, Blinken said, "not just raised this with us, but it's my understanding have raised it directly with China, including here today".
The Russian foreign ministry said that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Qin had met in New Delhi, and expressed "unanimous rejection" of the West's "attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries" and "impose unilateral approaches through blackmail and threats".
Blinken confirmed that he had briefly met with Lavrov. In a 10-minute exchange - their first one-on-one meeting since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago - Blinken said he urged Russia to reverse its "irresponsible" decision to walk away from the only remaining nuclear non-proliferation treaty with the US.
"I told the foreign minister that no matter what else is happening in the world or in our relationship, the United States will always be ready to engage and act on strategic arms control, just as the United States and the Soviet Union did even at the height of the Cold War," Blinken said.
Blinken also met with Jaishankar, with the two sides addressing shared efforts to elevate and expand strategic technology and military and industrial cooperation.
According to a statement by the US State Department, Blinken and Jaishankar also discussed their countries' cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and ways to mitigate the global impacts of the war in Ukraine.
After regarding the US with suspicion for decades, India has aligned more closely with Washington and its allies in recent years as China's military might and economic influence have grown.
India is a member of the Quad, a US-led security bloc cooperation in the Indo-Pacific that also includes Japan and Australia and is aimed at countering China.
The Quad foreign ministers are set to meet on Friday in New Delhi. Blinken said that the key areas of focus would include "protecting the free and unrestricted movement of goods and people across our seas, and boosting cooperation around humanitarian assistance and disaster relief".
On Thursday, Qin also met with Jaishankar for about 45 minutes, discussing the challenges in the "abnormal" bilateral relationship, "especially on the peace and tranquillity in the border areas", Jaishankar said in his news briefing.
India has maintained friendly ties with Russia dating from the Cold War era. Russia is India's leading supplier of arms and munitions, and India is a major buyer of Russian oil.
India has so far avoided criticising Russia for its war on Ukraine and instead talked about other difficulties facing developing countries on major international platforms.
Katja Gloger, author of Putin's World: The New Russia, Ukraine and the West, said that Russia has portrayed its invasion of Ukraine as a "righteous war" to defend the Russian civilisation against the collective West and the global politics of the US while also presenting itself as a "sort of partner of the Global South, defending a new multipolar world".
"I think this is the view from Moscow that meets quite some interest in countries in the Global South, who also blamed the collective West of hypocrisy," she said.
Susan Ariel Aaronson of the Elliot School of International School at George Washington University reckoned the divide was "not a complete cleavage".
She said that the US must keep communication lines open with Russia on "wicked problems, such as the global spread of disease, poverty and climate change" that also affect the developing world.
Addressing the G20 foreign ministers on Thursday, Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi said that India's G20 presidency had "tried to give a voice to the Global South", advising "we should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can".
India assumed its one-year rotating presidency of the Group of 20, the world's 20 largest economies, from Indonesia in December. Last week, G20 finance ministers also failed to adopt a joint communique, as Russia and China opposed any reference to the war in Ukraine.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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