Bengaluru: Finance heads of the world’s most powerful economies were split over language on Russia’s war in Ukraine with some western powers hardening their position on isolating Moscow while host India looked for more neutral terms to describe the conflict.
The two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors got underway here on Friday with an agenda including a wide range of issues – from debt relief to poorer countries, to digital currencies and payments, reforms of multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank, climate change and financial inclusion.
But what split the grouping was the language to be used in the end-of-the-meeting communique to describe the situation in Ukraine.
Coinciding with the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, officials of US and France blamed Moscow for the war.
While US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia ending the war was “the most important thing” for the global economy, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said there was no way G20 could step back from a joint statement agreed at a last summit in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022, which had stated that “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine”.
Yellen accused officials from Moscow attending the Group of 20 meeting of being complicit in atrocities taking place in Ukraine.
Host India wants the geopolitical tension to be referred to as a “crisis” or a “challenge” while US and other western nations want nothing short of “war” to go in the communique that is to be issued on Saturday evening.
Sources said India was attempting to build a consensus to include neutral words.
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