G20 meeting in India ends without joint communique
Finance chiefs of many of the world's largest economies strongly condemned Moscow for its war on Ukraine on Saturday, with only China and Russia itself declining to sign a joint statement. India, which as chair of the Group of Twenty (G20) economies was hosting a meeting in the city of Bengaluru, was reluctant to raise the issue of the war but Western nations insisted they could not back any outcome that did not include a condemnation. Two delegates told Reuters that China and Russia did not want the G20 platform to be used to discuss political matters. The lack of consensus among G20 members meant India resorted to issuing a "chair's summary and outcome document" in which it simply summed up the two days of talks and noted disagreements. "Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy," it said, citing disruption of supply chains, risks to financial stability and continuing energy and food insecurity. "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions," it said, referring to measures put in place by the United States, European countries and others to punish Russia and to starve it of revenues. Russia, a member of the G20 but not of the G7, refers to its actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation", and avoids calling it a war. India has kept a largely neutral stance, declining to blame Russia, seeking a diplomatic solution and sharply boosting its purchases of Russian oil. On the sidelines, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a meeting on Saturday with the World Bank, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the G7 on restructuring debt for distressed economies, but there too there were disagreements among members, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. "We just finished a session in which it was clear that there is a commitment to bridge differences for the benefit of countries," Georgieva, who co-chaired the roundtable with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, told reporters. Further discussions are planned around the time of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in April. Pressure has been building on China, the world's largest bilateral creditor, and other nations to take a large haircut in loans given to struggling developing nations. In a video address to the G20 meeting on Friday, Finance Minister Liu Kun reiterated Beijing's position that the World Bank and other multilateral development banks should also participate in debt relief by taking haircuts. (Reuters)