G20 fails to reach consensus on Russia-Ukraine war -sources

• Host India is pressing the meeting to avoid using the word “war” in any communique.
• The US and its G7 partners have been demanding that the declaration explicitly criticize Russia for its invasion of its neighbor.
• Such clashes have become more prevalent in the G20.

G20 finance leaders have been unable to find an agreement on how to describe the conflict in Ukraine, and the conference in Mumbai on Saturday is expected to end without a joint declaration, according to attendees.

The US and its G7 partners have been firm in demanding that the declaration explicitly criticize Russia for its invasion of its neighbor, which has been rejected by the Russian and Chinese delegations, they added.

Russia, which is a member of the G20, refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation”, and avoids calling it an invasion or war.

Host India is also pressing the meeting to avoid using the word “war” in any communique, G20 officials have told Reuters. India, which holds the current G20 presidency, has kept a largely neutral stance on the war, declining to blame Russia for the invasion, seeking a diplomatic solution and sharply boosting its purchases of Russian oil.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the group could not back down from a common statement issued at a G20 conference in Bali, Indonesia, last November, in which “most members strongly opposed the violence in Ukraine,” but accepted that certain countries perceived the conflict differently.

“Either we have the same language or we do not sign on the final communique,” Le Maire told on Friday.

On the fringes of the conference on Friday, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said the G20 must not abandon its prior criticism of Russia.

“We need absolute clarity, this is a war initiated by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” he said.

Such clashes have become more prevalent in the G20, a group established over 20 years ago in reaction to previous economic crises but recently hampered by divisions between Western nations and others, notably China and Russia.

According to a senior G20 source, negotiations over the statement were challenging, with Russia and China opposing Western initiatives.  “India wants to stick to the Bali wording,” the source said.

According to the source and several other officials, a consensus on the communique seemed doubtful, and the conference was likely to end with a statement by the host summarising the deliberations.

“In the absence of a consensus, the option for India would be to issue a chair statement,” one of the officials said.

The foreign, finance and communication ministries in India did not immediately respond to demands for comment.

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