With its weaker stance on Putin the G20 lets Kyiv slip as a priority and underlines India's influence

It took Indian diplomats 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts, but in the end the G20 countries reached a consensus on the war in Ukraine - one that largely retreated into generalised principles rather than the specific condemnation of Russia that the same group of leaders agreed upon when they met in Bali a year ago.

- Patrick Wintour

Moreover, no invitation was extended to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to address the gathering, so the only direct combatant around the table was Russia, represented by its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

India is hailing the agreement as a diplomatic triumph. Going into the summit there had been three options for the leaders: a lowest common-denominator agreement (the eventual outcome), a statement with footnotes allowing some countries to disown parts of the agreement, or no declaration.

The agreement admits there are different assessments of the situation, but upholds the principles of national sovereignty, the UN charter and previous UN resolutions on Ukraine, and says use of nuclear weapons is impermissible. Critically, it does not repeat the statement made in Bali which says that most countries condemn Russia's invasion, or that Russia should withdraw its troops unconditionally and immediately.

India's external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, did not seem too bothered to justify the outcome. "Bali was Bali. New Delhi is Delhi. Bali was a year ago, the situation was different. Many things have happened since then," he said.