Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine has cast a definite shadow on the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur with both US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and UK Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch stressing on the need to acknowledge its adverse impact on the world.

This could pose a challenge for India, which is holding the G20 Presidency this year, to forge a consensus on the language to be used in the joint communique on the Russia-Ukraine war although there has been good progress in the five trade and investment areas, including MSME integration and GVCs, per sources.

Tai, in her address at the meet on Thursday, stated that trade for growth and prosperity cannot be discussed without acknowledging the serious impact of Russia’s “premeditated and unprovoked’’ war of aggression against Ukraine. 

Food inflation

“Russia’s actions demonstrate a callous indifference to human life, both within Ukraine and around the world, particularly in developing countries striving to secure their own prosperity. One month ago, Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which provided a lifeline for hundreds of millions worldwide facing hunger and spiralling food costs by enabling the delivery of 20 million tonnes of grain to lower and middle-income countries,” Tai said. 

The global food price index has seen a steady rise over the past month. Russia’s suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative now threatens the food security of the most vulnerable populations around the world, she added. 

“We call on Russia to reverse its decision, to resume negotiations, and to extend, expand, and fully implement the Initiative immediately for the benefit of the millions of people who depend on Ukrainian grain. Beyond this action, Russia must end its unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine and withdraw all of its forces from Ukraine,” the USTR said.

Replying to a question on whether disagreement over Russia and Ukraine among G20 countries could hamper the chances of a joint communique at the Trade and Investment meet, Badenoch said that such things happened at all multilateral meetings. “From our perspective, in the UK, what we are really emphasising, especially as today is the Ukrainian day of independence, just how significant an impact that war has had on UK trade, on European trade and on global trade. So given who the members of the G20 are, of course, it’s (consensus on communique) is going to be difficult,” the Secretary of State for International Trade said in a meeting with media representatives on the sidelines of the meet.

Key G20 meetings, including one of Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors in Gandhinagar last month and the Foreign Ministers meeting in Delhi in March, failed to come out with joint communiques because of the differences between the Western countries and Russia over the Ukraine war.

(Travel to Jaipur for the correspondent has been sponsored by the Commerce & Industry Ministry)

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