G20 foreign ministers' meeting could not agree on joint communique

The G20 foreign ministers meeting on Thursday was unable to come out with a joint communique due to bitterly increasing rift between the US-led Western powers and Russia over the Ukraine conflict despite consistent efforts by host India to bridge the differences.The meeting, held under Indias presidency, adopted a Chairs Summary and Outcome Document listing various key priorities for the grouping including the need to have reliable food, energy and fertiliser supply chains.

The G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday was unable to come out with a joint communique due to bitterly increasing rift between the US-led Western powers and Russia over the Ukraine conflict despite consistent efforts by host India to bridge the differences.

The meeting, held under India's presidency, adopted a Chair's Summary and Outcome Document listing various key priorities for the grouping including the need to have reliable food, energy and fertiliser supply chains. At a media briefing, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said there were differences over the Ukraine conflict because of which the meeting could not agree on the joint communique, but noted that there was consensus on the bulk of the concerns including those relating to the developing countries.

''If we had a perfect meeting of minds on all issues and captured it fully, then obviously, it would have been a collective statement, but there were issues and I think the issues, I would say, very frankly, concerned the Ukraine conflict on which there were divergences,'' he said. ''So on the bulk of the issues, we were able to get an outcome document. There was a chair summary because there were differences on the Ukraine issue, which we could not reconcile between various parties who held differing positions,'' he said.

Though Jaishankar did not mention names of the countries opposed to the two paragraphs, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference that Russia and China did not support the joint communique.

Jaishankar said it was just on two paragraphs ''that we were not able to get everybody on the same page or same para as you might call it.'' The G20 functions under the principle of consensus.

Several diplomats said there were deep divisions between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict.

In his video message at the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for building consensus on pressing global challenges and not allowing differences on geopolitical tensions to affect overall cooperation in the grouping.

Modi also invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha to urge the delegates to draw inspiration from India's civilizational ethos and ''focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us.'' In their remarks at the meeting, Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly and European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell criticized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine while China's Qin Gang referred to the 12-point Chinese peace plan to resolve the conflict.

The Chair's Summary and Outcome Document mentioned two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict but the footnote said all countries agreed to them except Russia and China. The two paragraphs were taken from G20's Bali declaration and it had support of both Russia and China.

''On one particular issue because of very polarized views of some countries, we were not able to bridge it on this particular occasion, whereas as our colleague pointed out from there, we were able to do that with, you know, a number of us were able to do that collectively in Bali, but obviously, the Bali situation today, for whatever reason, some countries feel cannot be extrapolated,'' Jaishankar said.

China and Russia objected to the same formulations at the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Bengaluru last month following which no joint communique could be issued.

''It is essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability. This includes defending all the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure in armed conflicts,'' according to one of the two paragraphs.

It said the ''use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today's era must not be of war.'' Jaishankar said the foreign ministers ''unequivocally condemned'' terrorism in all forms and manifestations and recognised that all acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable. ''They called for strengthening efforts to deny safe havens to terrorist groups, freedom of operations, movement and recruitment, as well as financial, material, or political support,'' he said.

The outcome document stressed upon the need to have reliable food and fertiliser supply chains as well as resilient and sustainable energy supply chains. ''The G20 also reflected upon the threats arising from the misuse of new and emerging technologies and highlighted the importance of strengthening international cooperation in that regard,'' Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar said the Ukraine conflict is impacting the global South and that India has been saying this very strongly for close to a year.

''For much of the global South, this is a make or break issue, that the cost of fuel, the cost of food, the cost of fertiliser, the availability of fertiliser, which means next year's food, these are all extremely pressing issues,'' he said. ''And if you see some of the countries who were already struggling with debt, who were already impacted by the pandemic, for them, this conflict, the knock on effects of this conflict coming on top of that has been really, I mean, damaging is a very, very mild word,'' he added.

The Chair's Summary and Outcome Document said the meeting was deeply concerned by the challenges to global food security exacerbated by current conflicts and tensions. ''Promoting the availability, accessibility, affordability, sustainability, equity and transparent flow of food and agricultural products including fertilizers in all corners of the globe, to fight hunger and malnutrition, is the need of the hour,'' it said.

It said supply chains of both food and agricultural products including fertilizers should be kept reliable, open and transparent.

The foreign ministers from the world's largest industrialised and developing nations held crucial deliberations on key global challenges that took place in the backdrop of the increasingly bitter rift between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict.

The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies.

The members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).