Meeting of foreign ministers is marred by disagreements as Russia and China reject a joint statement calling for an end to the war.
A meeting of the Group of 20 has ended without a consensus on the war in Ukraine, as China and Russia refused to support a request for Moscow to cease hostilities.
The two were the only countries at Thursday’s meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi to disagree on a statement demanding Russia’s “complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.”
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were “differences” that could not be reconciled because “different parties had different views”.
He added that members of the G20, a group of the world’s major economies, agreed on most issues related to the concerns of less developed countries “such as strengthening multilateralism, promoting food and energy security , climate change, gender issues and counter-terrorism”.
In a video address to the assembled foreign ministers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged members not to allow the current tensions to destroy any agreements that could be reached on food and energy security, climate change and debt.
End of the war in Ukraine
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who sat opposite her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, used the G20 meeting to address the longtime diplomat.
“Mr Lavrov, stop this war, stop violating our international order, stop bombing Ukrainian cities and civilians,” she said.
Lavrov hit back in his speech, accusing western states of hypocrisy for “pumping Ukraine full of guns for years”.
According to comments from the US State Department, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent much of his time in the Indian capital describing Washington’s efforts to strengthen energy and food security. He also emphatically told the meeting that Russia’s war with Ukraine could not go unchallenged.
“Unfortunately, this meeting has once again been marred by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, its deliberate campaign of destruction against civilian targets and its attack on the core principles of the UN Charter,” Blinken said.
Blinken briefly met Lavrov on Thursday in the first high-level meeting in months between representatives of the two countries. US officials said they talked on the sidelines of the conference for less than 10 minutes.
In recent days, Washington has accused China of considering supplying arms to Russia for use in the war. Beijing has denied that claim, as a Chinese peace proposal for Ukraine was praised by Russia and its ally Belarus, but dismissed by the West.
China hit back on Thursday, accusing the US of promoting war by supplying Ukraine with arms and violating Chinese sovereignty with support for Taiwan.
“The US says they want peace, but they are waging wars around the world and inciting confrontations,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
“While the US emphasizes the need to respect and maintain international order, it has vigorously pursued unlawful unilateral sanctions, putting domestic law above international law,” she said.
Ahead of the G20 meeting, Russia’s foreign ministry denounced US policy, saying Lavrov and his delegation would use the meeting to “focus on the West’s attempts to retaliate for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from their hands”. .
