Diplomatic win Biden defers to Modi on Ukraine in sign of India's growing 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 lowestcommon-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.