G20 Foreign Ministers were unable to come up with a joint statement following their meeting in New Delhi on Thursday due to divergences over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

The Chair’s summary and outcome document, issued after the meeting, however, covered a number of important issues on which there was an agreement, such as promoting food and energy security, tackling climate change, strengthening multilateralism and gender issues, said the Minister at a press briefing on Thursday.

“There were issues [leading to differences], and very frankly they were concerned with the Ukraine conflict. There were divergences. There were differences, which could not be reconciled,” said Jaishankar, responding to a question on the absence of a joint statement.

“If we had a perfect meeting of minds on all issues, it would have been a collective statement,” he added.

Stressing on the success of the meeting despite no joint statement, the Minister said that in the outcome document there was almost 90 per cent agreement. “Just on two paras we were not able to get everybody on the same page or para,” said Jaishankar.

The G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting last week in Bengaluru, too, could not produce a joint statement, as China and Russia did not agree with its content on the Ukraine war.

The G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting discussed the challenges related to the Russia-Ukraine issues, said Jaishankar, adding that PM Modi had advised the Ministers to realise what united them and what divided them.

India has openly criticised the Russia-Ukraine war and has been calling for a resolution through dialogue, but it has largely abstained from voting whenever resolutions have been tabled at the UN by the West condemning Russia.

 China, on the other hand, has been directly supporting Russia through various means and there are allegations that it may be considering helping Moscow with weapons.

Jaishankar held a number of bilaterals on Thursday including ones with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. He met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday.

India, which holds the rotating Presidency of the G20 this year, is trying to project the interests of developing countries in various spheres of discussions on global issues.

Jaishankar, who chaired the meet, said that there was largely an agreement over most of the issues of concern to the Global South  in the outcome document.

Earlier in the day, in his opening statement, Jaishankar said that  challenges of food, fertilisers and fuel security were make or break issues for developing countries and need to  be central to any global economic decision making.

Representatives of about 40 countries, including the Foreign Ministers of most G20 nations, participated in the event. There were  participants from several non-G20 members and guest countries invited by India such as Bangladesh, Egypt, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman and Singapore.

The G20 comprises influential economies, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union.

The countries account for around 85 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of global trade and 65 percent of the world’s population.

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