Although China tried to tone down references to the Ukraine war, G20 finance ministers were unable to reach agreement on a common statement on the status of the world economy on Saturday during discussions in Mumbai.
Instead, India, the G20’s current president, released a “chair’s report” in which it was stated that “the majority of members strongly denounced the war in Ukraine” and that “various evaluations of the situation and sanctions” were made during the two-day Bengaluru summit.
Two paragraphs about the conflict that were taken from the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration in November, according to a footnote, “were agreed to by all member countries with the exception of Russia and China.”
Nadia Calvino, a spokesperson for Spain, had earlier stated that it was “difficult” to agree on a statement due to some unnamed nations’ “less productive” attitudes during the discussions among the top 20 economies of the globe.
According to sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, China intended to remove the word “war” from the declaration’s language as of November.
Since G20 member Russia invaded its neighbour in February, previous gatherings of the group’s finance ministers and central bankers have similarly failed to result in a shared declaration.
The Chinese and Russian officials refused to ratify the language on Ukraine, according to senior Indian official Ajay Seth, since “their job is to deal with economic and financial matters.”
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