At the G20 meeting in India, the participants cannot agree on a final declaration. Because two countries do not want to condemn the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. One of them is Russia itself. China is now taking its side.
The finance ministers of the leading industrial and emerging countries (G20) did not agree on a joint final declaration at their meeting in India because of the dispute over the Ukraine war. Instead, the Presidency, India, published its own summary. Most states again condemned the Russian war of aggression in the strongest possible terms and demanded an unconditional withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. The relevant passage did not agree with Russia and China.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner criticized the People’s Republic after the meeting. He very much regrets that the Chinese attitude has shifted, said Lindner in Bengaluru. “We jointly condemn the Russian attack on Ukraine. There was a lot in common here – albeit with the exception of the very ambivalent Chinese. That has to be said very clearly,” criticized Lindner. While there has been a “step backwards on the side of China”, Brazil, for example, now has a clearer position.
Discussions in Bengaluru included whether the word “war” should be included in the final document. Germany and France made it clear that they would not tolerate any language that falls short of what leaders said at the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali in November. There the G20 formulated: “Most of the members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.”
Common assessments and goals are usually set out in a communiqué after a G20 meeting. Since the Ukraine war, however, talks have repeatedly faltered because Russia is also a member of the group. There were also differences at the meeting about the debt of poor countries. Lindner had already warned China on Friday to take greater responsibility for possible relief for countries like Ghana. After the meeting, he said he was cautiously optimistic that there could be further progress this year.
The People’s Republic is one of the largest lenders. According to calculations by the World Bank, the poorest countries have to transfer around 62 billion dollars a year to their creditors to service their debts – two-thirds of the debt they owe to China.
