After hundreds of hours of negotiations and more than a dozen drafts, representatives of the world’s richest nations faced a difficult choice late Friday evening: Accept watered-down language about Ukraine in a final G20 declaration, or have no declaration at all.
As the clock ticked down, the leaders chose the former, hoping to avoid open fractures within their group, a ding to the G20’s credibility and embarrassment for the summit’s host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In doing so, the group was left with a statement that avoided any explicit condemnation of Russia’s invasion, opting instead for vows from the 20 member states to respect territorial integrity and work toward peace.
By the days leading up to the summit, it had become clear that any statement agreed to by the leaders would contain language that fell short of the statement from last year. Just before midnight Friday, it was clear to diplomats involved that the compromise language was the only option, aside from not producing a statement at all. “This is not the statement the G7 or NATO would have written,” one European official involved in the talks said. “This is different beast.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
G20 leaders to begin two-day summit overshadowed by divisions over UkraineLeaders of the world's 20 most powerful nations begin an annual summit on Saturday in India's capital New Delhi, deeply divided over the war in Ukraine but in broad agreement on issues such as cryptocurrencies and reforms in multilateral development banks.
Read more »
G20 nations compromise on Ukraine war reference to reach Delhi agreementThere were fears Delhi negotiators and diplomats might not be able to broker a consensus at this year’s meeting due to Russian and Chinese objections on the reference to the ongoing war.
Read more »
Live blog: G20 decries 'use of force' in Ukraine, avoids mentioning RussiaRussia-Ukraine conflict rages on its 563rd day.
Read more »
Ukraine says G20 summit declaration 'nothing to be proud of'The Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Saturday the G20's joint declaration was 'nothing to be proud of' and criticised it for not mentioning Russia.
Read more »
G20 summit statement takes aim at Russian invasion of UkraineIn the declaration, a win for the United States, summit leaders took said that “all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition.”
Read more »
G20 agreement reflects sharp differences over Ukraine and the rising clout of the Global SouthThe Group of 20 top world economies added the African Union as a member at their annual summit Saturday, and host India was able to get the disparate group to sign off on a final statement, but only after softening language on the contentious issue of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Read more »