G20 Nations Fail To Agree Joint Statement On Ukraine

It's the second time the summit has resulted in no agreement

- Shweta Sharma

A meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Delhi ended without agreement over the conflict in Ukraine yesterday, as US secretary of state Antony Blinken briefly met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in their first encounter since the war.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there would be no statement agreed by all nations “because there were differences on the Ukraine issue which we could not reconcile”. Mr Blinken blamed Russia for derailing the meeting and urged the G20 to call on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, this meeting has again been marred by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, deliberate campaign of destruction against civilian targets, and its attack on the core principles of the UN Charter,” he told the gathering.

Mr Lavrov, who gave a press conference on his own shortly before Mr Jaishankar’s, said the meeting failed to reach an agreement because of the “emotional” approach to Ukraine from Western nations. It is the second year running that the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has failed to produce a joint statement, as last year’s in Bali ended in bitter disagreements over the war and Russia’s presence.