The G-20 closes maintaining its fundamental division on the war in Ukraine

2023-09-10 15:18:18

It seemed doomed to failure, but, against all odds, the G-20 managed to agree this Saturday on a final joint declaration in the first hours of the meeting. summit. The agreement, yes, was reached after softening his sentence to Russia for having started a guerra contra Ukraine in which almost half a million people have died. This Sunday, the Indiathe host country, has closed this edition satisfied with the consensus. But, beyond the grammatical balances, the twenty largest economic powers in the world remain divided on the conflict that continues to bleed the east of Europa.

Proof of this is the clash of different interpretations that have been made of the declaration. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not attended the meeting, but through his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, he has described the agreement reached as an “unconditional success.” “Thanks to these positions adopted by the countries of the On global to defend and protect its legitimate interests, the West has not been able to ‘Ukrainize’ the agenda to the detriment of the discussion of the tasks facing developing countries,” celebrated the head of Russian diplomacy.

Of 37 pages and 83 paragraphs, the agreed document does not explicitly condemn the Kremlin by invasion of its neighbour, but limits itself to stressing that States must “refrain from acting against the territorial integrity and the sovereignty or political independence” of third parties and to classify as “inadmissible” the threat of the use of nuclear weapons reiterated by Moscow.

At last year’s summit, G-20 members did point fingers at Putin and demand the withdrawal of the russian troops of Ukraine, a request that has now vanished. The indignation of Kiev It didn’t take long to arrive. “The G-20 has nothing to be proud of,” lamented the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Oleg Nikolenkoin a message published on the networks.

More economics than politics

Western countries, with USA at the top, have come out to justify a juggling syntactic reformulation that “does a very good job in defending the principle” of not assault picked up by United Nationsaccording to Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

Like Washington, Europe has also denied that the summit was a victory for the Kremlin. “This G-20 confirms once again Russia’s isolation,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “Today, an overwhelming majority of members condemn the war in Ukraine and its impact.” Paris emphasizes that the summit held in New Delhi was not the place to make diplomatic progress on the conflict, prioritizing the resolution of economic rather than political issues.