G20 looks for consensus on describing Ukraine war

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, March 31

India is looking to arrive at a consensus with the G20 nations on the language to be used, or not to be used, to describe the Russia-Ukraine conflict when leaders meet for a summit in September.

Two recent ministerial-level meetings of G20 — the Finance Ministers’ meet in February and the Foreign Ministers meet in first week of March — ended without a joint-statement as India was not okay with calling Russia an aggressor. At both meetings, Russia and China objected to language being used in the context of the war.

The five-day G20 Sherpa meeting, the second such meet which commenced at Kumarakom in Kerala yesterday, will discuss the work being done under the 13 working groups within the sherpa track.

The sherpa meet at Kerala is expected to reach a compromise the way it did at the last G20 at Bali, Indonesia, that “any escalation of the war could upset a fragile balance”.

India’s G20 negotiator Amitabh Kant, while speaking to reporters yesterday, said, “One issue, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, cannot hold back many others.”

Replying to questions on the Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on G20 business, Kant had said, “We are friends with every single G20 member country.” At the Kerala meet, sources said, the group was so far “not close” to reaching a settlement over the language issue. Kant had yesterday held a meeting with Russian sherpa Svetlana Lukash, where he said “everything under the sun” was discussed.