As the G20 foreign ministers gathered for a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday under the shadow of tensions created by the Ukraine conflict.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them to set aside their divisions and focus on the economic and other challenges facing developing countries.
Modi pointed to the theme of India’s G20 presidency – One Earth, One Family, One Future – and said the meeting should reflect the spirit of coming together to achieve common objectives instead of being overcome by the “deep global divisions” that are expected to affect their discussions.
The foreign ministers of the world’s 20 largest economies are meeting at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre within the sprawling presidential palace complex at a time of heightened divisions between the G7 states and the China-Russia combine over the invasion of Ukraine.
People familiar with the matter said the discussions behind closed doors were dominated by the Ukraine crisis, with the two sides sticking to their stands.
In a video message that was played before the foreign ministers began their deliberations, Modi said the Indian G20 presidency’s theme signals the “need for unity of purpose and unity of action”. He added, “I hope that your meeting today will reflect this spirit of coming together, for achieving common and concrete objectives.”
Modi, who spoke in English and made no direct reference to the Ukraine crisis in his speech, noted the ministers were meeting “at a time of deep global divisions” and said that “it is but natural that your discussions are affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day”.
He added, “We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved. However, as the leading economies of the world, we also have a responsibility towards those who are not in this room.”
India has sought to push the concerns of the developing countries at the G20 platform, especially the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food, fuel, and fertiliser prices and rising inflation across the globe.
In this context, Modi said the world is looking to the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security. “In all these areas, the G20 has the capacity to build consensus and deliver concrete results. We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can,” he said.
“As you meet in the land of Gandhi and the Buddha, I pray that you will draw inspiration from India’s civilisational ethos – to focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us,” he added.
Modi also raised India’s long-standing demand for reform of multilateral institutions, saying “multilateralism is in crisis today” and the architecture of global governance created after World War II was to meant to prevent future wars and to foster global cooperation on common interests.
“The experience of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemic, terrorism, and wars – clearly shows that global governance has failed in both its mandates. We must also admit that the tragic consequences of this failure are being faced most of all by the developing countries,” he said.
Modi also urged the G20 to focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and unsustainable debt affecting many developing countries which are trying to ensure food and energy security while being affected by global warming. “This is why India’s G20 presidency has tried to give a voice to the Global South. No group can claim global leadership without listening to those most affected by its decisions,” he said.
The G20’s goal of finding the right balance between growth and efficiency on one hand and resilience on the other can be achieved by working together, Modi said. “I am sure that today’s meeting will be ambitious, inclusive, action-oriented, and will rise above differences,” he said.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, in his televised opening remarks, said there are “some matters of sharp differences of opinions and views” among the G20’s members but they “must find common ground and provide direction”. He too didn’t refer to the Ukraine conflict but said that “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity are essential guiding principles” for cooperation.
“The G20 must be sensitive to the priorities and economic concerns of all our partners, especially those more vulnerable,” Jaishankar said.
The people cited above said several Western countries, including the US and the UK, denounced Russia’s aggression in Ukraine during the deliberations. The Chinese side raised its recent peace plan for resolving the Ukraine crisis and sought support from other countries, the people said.
Even before the meeting of the ministers, the sous sherpas of the G20 countries began extensive deliberations on Tuesday to try and achieve consensus on a joint statement.
The people, however, said that with the Western countries and China and Russia sticking to their respective positions, there had been virtually no progress in bridging the gap.
They noted that the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting under the Indonesian presidency in July 2022 ended without any joint statement or even a chair’s summary. A joint statement at the foreign ministers’ meeting is optional.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a tweet the American side focused on shared goals and the needs of the world.
“I went to the #G20 today with two imperatives: First, to ensure that the G20 — with India at the helm — advances our shared goals, and second, to demonstrate how the U.S., together with our partners, is acting to meet the needs of the world. We succeeded at both.”