India will have to necessarily come up with a consensus-based language on the Russia-Ukraine war, as it may not be possible to keep out references to the conflict in the G20 Summit communiqué to be issued at the end of the meet on Sunday, officials have indicated.

“India’s expectation is that all members of the G20 should be, and are, together moving towards one consensus. At the end of the G20 Summit, we hope that a communiqué and outcome will be possible based on consensus,” said Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra at a pre-summit media briefing on Friday. Kwatra was answering a question on whether it was possible to exclude the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict from the communiqué given the fact that Russia and China had blocked communiqués in various G20 Ministers’ forums earlier this year, mostly based on this issue.

African Union

The G20 is being overshadowed by the geopolitical fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and objections over the wording of joint communiqués over the conflict have impacted all this year’s G20 meetings and working groups so far. Instead of joint statements, India has been issuing a “chairman’s summary” after each event, outlining what was discussed.

While a joint communiqué is looking increasingly difficult, India will showcase its G20 legacy as a champion for the global South. To this end, the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the grouping, similar to the EU’s role, would be heralded as a major achievement. The 55-member African Union would be the only other regional grouping in the G20 besides the EU and would be projected as a lasting impression of India’s presidency of the economic forum.

However, the draft of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration was “almost ready” and would be placed before the G20 leaders for their approval, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said at the briefing. The Indian Sherpa said the declaration will focus on the `voice of the Global South’ and highlighted six broad priorities where the G20 under India’s Presidency has been successful in getting its message across.

The G20 will push for bold, sustained, strong, and inclusive growth, accelerate sustainable development goals, stress green development in the context of climate action and finance, focus on multilateral institutions set up in the 21st century (including reform of MDBs), technology development and Digital Public infrastructure, and women-led development, empowerment, and gender equality, Kant said.

Western Push for Ukraine

Several G20 leaders, including US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, have already arrived in New Delhi for the meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are opposing references to Ukraine in the joint communique, are both not coming for the summit and would be represented by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, respectively.

Getting a consensus on the language to be used for Russia’s war on Ukraine is likely to be a Herculean task for India, as several G20 members, including the US, the UK, Canada, and the EU, have already emphasised that they would want strong criticism for Russia’s action and its negative fallout on the world economy, which is witnessing a steep increase in food and fertiliser prices.

“The most important thing we could do for global growth is for Russia to end its brutal war on Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at a media briefing on Friday.

Yellen said that the US was ready to collaborate with India to help formulate a communiqué after the G20 Summit in Delhi, although she said there were difficulties ahead in collaborating with different countries.

The UK government, in a press statement, said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would want global leaders to make it clear that Putin’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative has increased Russia’s global isolation and to protect those whose lives have been devastated by Putin’s “illegal war”.

EU officials, too, have said that the bloc would want Russia to be named as the aggressor and its war on Ukraine strongly criticised for its humanitarian impact and global price rise.

Some sources tracking the development said that attempts may be made to reach a consensus on the issue by condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine while also referring to China’s and Russia’s views on the matter.

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