Indonesia warns of energy and food crisis at G20 meeting

• The two-day summit on the resort island of Bali began under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, increased food prices, and spurred rapid inflation.
• Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian minister, told Russia’s delegation they were accountable for “war crimes” in Ukraine.

BALI, Indonesia: A group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs convened in Indonesia on Friday to discuss the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the host warning that failure to address the energy and food crises would be disastrous.

The two-day summit on the resort island of Bali began under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, increased food prices, and spurred rapid inflation.

The Indonesian Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, asked ministries to “work together” because “the world is watching” for answers.

“The cost of our failure is more than we can afford,” she told delegates. “The humanitarian consequences for the world and for many low-income countries would be catastrophic.”

Top banking executives from around the world, like US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, were supposed to talk about the return of the coronavirus pandemic, but the Ukraine war has taken up most of their time.

Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian minister with a Ukrainian background, told Russia’s delegation they were accountable for “war crimes” in Ukraine for supporting the invasion.

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According to an official, Freeland stated that “It is not only generals who commit war crimes, but it is also the economic technocrats who allow the war to happen and to continue.”

Anton Siluanov and Serhiy Marchenko are competing virtually.

Moscow sent Vice-Finance Minister Timur Maksimov and Bank of Russia official Elizaveta Danilova.

Freeland called the war “the single largest threat” to the global economy, repeating Yellen a day earlier.

Yellen said Putin’s government “had no place” in the discussions because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A Western diplomat told AFP that Russia didn’t send its finance minister or central bank governor “after the very direct criticism” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received last week in Bali.

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