New Delhi, February 02: Consensus proved elusive as the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting under India’s Presidency failed to arrive at a joint communiquй. Tensions over the war in Ukraine derailed India’s efforts to achieve a consensus. This is the second ministerial level meeting where Russia and China refused to countenance Western criticisms of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 
Earlier, G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Bangalore also saw similar tensions, with the attendant countries unable to agree on a joint communique after the meeting ended.
India had wanted its G20 presidency this year to focus on issues such as alleviating poverty and climate finance, but Russia’s assault on Ukraine has crowded out other agenda items.
Both Russia and China on Thursday criticised the West for employing “blackmail and threats” against other countries, Moscow said following a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers at the G20.
Moscow released the statement after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi. The two ministers also discussed Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Moscow said, including Beijing’s proposal for ending the conflict.
However, U.S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken, while addressing a press conference in Delhi on Thursday, said that Russia could end the Ukraine war tomorrow if it wanted. He said that only Russia and China refused to sign on to the Bali document and that at the UNGA, no G20 country voted with Russia.
Mr. Blinken said, “Every country is suffering from the impacts of the Russian War in Ukraine. We have to get food to those who are hungry and help countries become agriculturally sufficient. We also discussed at the G20 FMM that Russia must extend the Black Sea grain initiative.”
He commended External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for coming out with a Chairs Summary at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, a first of its kind. “Tomorrow we will hold a Quad FM meeting”, the U.S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
On his brief meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Mr. Blinken said that he urged the Russian Minister to return to negotiations for the START treaty, end the war and return to the path of peace. 
“I spoke briefly with Lavrov today. I urged Him to return to negotiate the Start treaty. I raised the wrongful detention of American prisoner in Russia,” he said.
On the other side, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also had a press conference. Lavrov, who did not mention speaking with Blinken when he held a news conference after the G-20 session, told reporters that Moscow would continue to press its action in Ukraine. He shrugged off Western claims of Russia’s isolation, saying “we aren’t feeling isolated. It’s the West that has isolated itself, and it will eventually come to realize it.”
He said Russia remains open to talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but he accused the West of effectively blocking such talks.
“They are calling on us to have talks, but I don’t remember any Western colleagues calling on Ukraine to have talks,” he said. “They are encouraging Ukraine to continue the war.”
At the end, in a media briefing on G20 presidency, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were “divergences” on the issue of the war in Ukraine “which we could not reconcile as various parties held differing views.”
“If we had a perfect meeting of minds on all issues, it would have been a collective statement,” Jaishankar said.
Foreign Ministers Meet Underway, #France and #Netherlands Foreign Ministers blamed Russia for global food crisis and #inflation. #watch . @g20org @g20org @AfricaWnn @NLatEU pic.twitter.com/fL0GaQtmSM
— Dr. Shahid Siddiqui (@shahidsiddiqui) March 2, 2023
In an opening remark, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier appealed for all members of the fractured G-20 to reach consensus on issues of particular concern to poorer countries even if the broader East-West split over Ukraine could not overcome.
“We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved,” Modi said. “We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.”
China and Russia objected to two paragraphs taken from the previous G-20 declaration in Bali last year, according to a summary of Thursday’s meeting released by India.
The paragraphs stated that the war in Ukraine was causing immense human suffering while exacerbating fragilities in the global economy, the need to uphold international law, and that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”
-Dr. M Shahid Siddiqui (PhD), Follow via Twitter @shahidsiddiqui
WATCH THE VIDEO STORY:
