New Delhi
\nA meeting of top diplomats of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations ended Thursday in New Delhi without a consensus on the Ukraine war, India\u2019s foreign minister said.
\nSubrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were \u201cdivergences\u201d on the issue of war in Ukraine \u201cwhich we could not reconcile as various parties held differing views.\u201d
\nLast week, India was forced to issue a compromised chair\u2019s summary at the conclusion of the G-20 finance ministers meeting after Russia and China objected to a joint communique that retained language on the war in Ukraine drawn directly from last year\u2019s G-20 leaders summit declaration in Indonesia.
\nHost India had appealed for all members of the fractured Group of 20 to reach consensus on issues of deep concern to poorer countries even if the broader East-West split over Ukraine cannot be resolved. I
\nIndia had wanted its G20 presidency this year to focus on issues such as alleviating poverty and climate finance, but the Ukraine war has so far crowded out other agenda items.
\nAnd while others, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, chose to highlight their positive roles in addressing world crises, the divide was palpable.
\nIn a video address to the assembled foreign ministers in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them not to allow current tensions to destroy agreements that might be reached on food and energy security, climate change and debt.
\n\u201cWe are meeting at a time of deep global divisions,\u201d Modi told the group, which included Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and their Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, whose discussions would naturally be \u201caffected by the geopolitical tensions of the day.\u201d
\n\u201cWe all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved,\u201d he said, adding that: \u201cWe should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.\u201d
\nIn a nod to fears that the increasingly bitter rift between the United States and its allies on one side and Russia and China on the other appears likely to widen further, Modi said that \u201cmultilateralism is in crisis today.\u201d
\nHe lamented that the two main goals of the post-World War II international order \u2014 preventing conflict and fostering cooperation \u2014 were elusive. \u201cThe experience of the last two years, financial crisis, pandemic, terrorism and wars clearly shows that global governance has failed in both its mandates,\u201d he said.
\nIndian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar then addressed the group in person, telling them that they \u201cmust find common ground and provide direction.\u201d
\nBlinken, according to remarks released by the State Department, spent much of his time describing US efforts to bolster energy and food security. But he also told the ministers pointedly that Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine could not go unchallenged.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, this meeting has again been marred by Russia\u2019s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, deliberate campaign of destruction against civilian targets, and its attack on the core principles of the UN Charter,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability,\u201d Blinken said. He noted that 141 countries had voted to condemn Russia at the United Nations on the one-year anniversary of the invasion.
\nHowever, several members of the G-20, including India, China and South Africa, chose to abstain in that vote.
\nWhile they were all in the same room, there was no sign that Blinken would sit down with either his Russian or Chinese counterparts. Ahead of the meeting, Blinken said he had no plans to meet with them individually but expected to see them in group settings.
\nIn addition to attending the G-20 and seeing Modi and Jaishankar individually on Thursday, Blinken met separately with the foreign ministers of Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa, and was also scheduled to hold talks with the foreign ministers of the Netherlands and Mexico.
\nAs at most international events since last year, the split over the war in Ukraine and its impact on global energy and food security will overshadow the proceedings. But as the conflict has dragged on over the past 12 months, the divide has grown and now threatens to become a principal irritant in US-China ties that were already on the rocks for other reasons.
\nA Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine that has drawn praise from Russia but dismissals from the West has done nothing to improve matters as US officials have repeatedly accused China in recent days of considering the provision of weapons to Russia for use in the war.
\nBlinken said Wednesday that the Chinese plan rang hollow given its focus on \u201csovereignty\u201d compared to its own recent actions.
\n\u201cChina can\u2019t have it both ways,\u201d Blinken told reporters in Tashkent, Uzbekistan before traveling to New Delhi. \u201cIt can\u2019t be putting itself out as a force for peace in public, while in one way or another, it continues to fuel the flames of this fire that Vladimir Putin started.\u201d
\nHe also said there is \u201czero evidence\u201d that Putin is genuinely prepared for diplomacy to end the war. \u201cTo the contrary, the evidence is all in the other direction,\u201d he said.
\nChina on Thursday hit back at those comments, accusing the US of promoting war by supplying Ukraine with weapons and violating Chinese sovereignty with support for Taiwan.
\n\u201cThe US says it wants peace, but it is waging wars around the world and inciting confrontation,\u201d Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
\n\u201cWhile emphasizing the need to respect and maintain the international order, the US has vigorously pursued illegal unilateral sanctions, putting domestic law above international law,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat the US should do is to reflect on itself, stop confusing the public and making irresponsible remarks, earnestly shoulder its responsibilities, and do something to promote the de-escalation of the situation and peace talks.\u201d
\nIn the meantime, Moscow has been unrelenting in pushing its view that the West, led by the US, is trying to destroy Russia.
\nAhead of the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed US policies, saying that Lavrov and his delegation would use the G-20 to \u201cfocus on the attempts by the West to take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands.\u201d
\nThe antagonism has left India in the unenviable position of trying to reconcile clearly irreconcilable differences.
\nThe meeting is particularly crucial for India\u2019s hopes to use its chairmanship of the group to leverage its position on the global stage and adopt a neutral stance on Ukraine in order to focus on issues of importance to developing nations like rising inflation, debt stress, health, climate change and food and energy security.
\nBut just last week, India was forced to issue a chair\u2019s summary at the conclusion of the G-20 finance ministers\u2019 meeting after Russia and China objected to a joint communique that retained language on the war in Ukraine drawn directly from the declaration from last year\u2019s G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
\nIndia hopes to avert a repeat of that, but prospects appear dim. US officials said discussions were ongoing about language that could be used in a final statement but could not predict if they would succeed.
\nSo far, though, India has refrained from directly criticizing Russia, its major Cold War-era ally, while increasing imports of Russian oil, even as it has increasingly faced pressure to take a firm stand on Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi A meeting of top diplomats of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations ended Thursday in New Delhi without a consensus on the Ukraine war, India\u2019s foreign minister said. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were \u201cdivergences\u201d on the issue of war in Ukraine \u201cwhich we could not reconcile as various parties held differing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-317071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n