Ukraine war overshadows G20 foreign ministers meeting

US and other western states sought statement condemning Russia's war in Ukraine

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi. AFP

A tense meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi ended without a joint communique on Thursday amid a stand-off between the US and Russia and their respective allies over the war in Ukraine, despite a meeting between the US Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister.

The brief encounter between Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov was the highest-level meeting between the two sides since Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.

US State Department officials said Mr Blinken told Mr Lavrov of Washington’s commitment to supporting Ukraine and urged Moscow to engage with Kyiv, hours after Russia accused the West was employing blackmail and threats.

But Mr Lavrov said the West was turning the G20 meeting into a “farce” and derailing the agenda. He added that the grouping of 20 countries could not agree on a “joint statement due to western nations attempting to emphasise Ukraine in an emotional way”.

The last time Mr Blinken and Mr Lavrov were in the same room, during the G20 summit in Bali last year, the Russian minister stormed out, according to diplomats.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the G20 members at the opening session urging the ministers to find common ground on global issues and not focus on things that divide.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the delegates had adopted a chair summary and outcome document at the end of the summit, as was done after the meeting of G20 finance ministers last week that omitted mention of Russia's war on Ukraine.

“There were differences on the Ukraine conflict on which there were divergences … there was a chair summary because there were differences which we could not reconcile between various parties who held differing positions,” Mr Jaishankar told journalists.

India, the host nation, has adopted a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict but has found itself in an awkward diplomatic situation as host nation after assuming the G20 presidency last year.

“There was consensus on 95 per cent of paragraphs but … given the state of polarisation, even presumably developments, which have happened, we found that positions were very far apart and we tried very hard but we were not able to reach the gap,” he said.

Russia has been sensitive about the US and its allies’ description of its “special military operation” in Ukraine being described as a “war”.

The US and other western members were pushing for a strong joint statement denouncing Moscow over the conflict.

But Russia and close ally China have blocked such attempts in a setback to the West’s efforts to diplomatically isolate Moscow as it continues to hit the country with economic sanctions.

The US has warned Beijing against any move to help Russia in the conflict.

The summit was attended by foreign ministers from 27 countries apart from India as well as representatives of 13 international organisations including the World Health Organisation.