Leaders of the G20 countries meet in India this Saturday for their annual summit, while deep disagreements over the war in Ukraine remain and it is uncertain whether consensus on a statement will be reached.
According to a draft statement seen by Portal, negotiations leading up to the summit failed to resolve differences over the wording of the summit War in UkraineIt is therefore the responsibility of the heads of state and government to find a compromise if possible. Negotiators have been working in recent days to agree on the text in the hope of convincing him Russia to contribute to the development of the G20 Heads of State and Government Declaration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is representing his country at the G20 summit, said he would block the statement if it did not reflect Moscow’s position on certain issues, including the war in Ukraine.
Agreement or not
A source told Portal that a joint statement may or may not be passed unanimously. For example, it could contain different paragraphs setting out the positions of different countries, or set out agreements and disagreements in the same paragraph. “We could look past the differences and make a general statement that we should have peace and harmony in the world so that everyone agrees,” a second source said.
According to a senior source in one of the G20 countries, the paragraph about the war in Ukraine was approved by Western countries and forwarded to Russia for comment. The source said that as part of the statement, Moscow could accept Western countries’ views and express its disagreement. Should no agreement be reached, India will have to issue a presidential statement, which would mean the G20 will not issue a leaders’ statement for the first time in 20 years.