Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is happy with a statement made by G20 leaders in Delhi. The statement does not criticize Russia for its conflict with Ukraine.
Mr Lavrov said that Russia was not expecting everyone to agree, but they saw the agreement on the wording as a positive step.
The G20 statement said it is wrong to use force to take over land, but did not mention Russia’s aggressive actions. Ukraine criticized this.
The meeting that lasted for two days also welcomed the African Union as a new permanent member.
The group of 55 countries is invited by India to join. India wants to include more countries from the Global South in the G20.
The largest economies in the world made important agreements in Delhi. They agreed on issues like climate change and using biofuels. However, some people were upset because they did not agree to stop using fossil fuels.
For the second year in a row, there was no official G20 “family photo”. (Simple words) No explanation was given, but there are reports that many leaders did not want to take pictures, because they were upset about Russia being at the meeting.
Only a small number of people had expected all the countries in the G20 to make a statement together, especially on the first day of the summit. The group is strongly split over Russia’s attack on Ukraine last year. Neither Russia’s Vladimir Putin nor China’s Xi Jinping came to Delhi. Instead, they sent representatives of lower rank.
There was a surprise when, only a few hours after the summit began, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that they had agreed on how to word the part about Ukraine in the statement. This part had criticized Russia last year, but now it was made less strong.
Mr Lavrov said at a press conference on Sunday that an important point had been reached.
To put it simply, we were really surprised. We were prepared to protect our choice of words in the text. He responded to a question from the BBC’s Yogita Limaye by saying that the Global South is no longer interested in being told what to do.
The UK and US also mentioned the joint statement positively, but Ukraine, who participated in last year’s Bali summit but was not included this year, expressed that they were not proud of it.
Last year in Bali, most members strongly criticized Russia’s aggressive behavior towards Ukraine. In contrast, the Delhi declaration discusses the harm and negative effects of the war in Ukraine on worldwide food and energy security.
It asks countries to not use violence to try to take land from other countries. This might be talking about Russia, but it says that different people have different opinions about what is going on.
Experts say that the way money and influence are shared among the top 20 economies in the world is changing. It is no longer just the wealthy countries in the Western world that have the most control, but also the big developing countries in Asia.
There were also important events at the summit that focused on making plans to address climate change.
The G20 countries have agreed to work together to increase renewable energy capacity by three times using their current goals and policies. The group represents over 75% of the greenhouse gases discharged worldwide.
India, the United States, and Brazil have come together to create a global alliance for biofuels. The purpose of this alliance is to increase the use of cleaner fuels. The grouping aims to help speed up worldwide efforts to reach the goal of no net emissions by promoting the trading of biofuels made from things like leftover plant and animal materials.
There was also a big agreement between countries in the Middle East and South Asia about building railways and ports, which happened during the summit. The pact is seen as a way to oppose China’s efforts to expand global infrastructure through their Belt and Road project.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Modi ended the summit, which had been hyped up and waited for for months. He gave President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil a special hammer, as he is becoming the president.
President Lula focused on the difficulties that developing countries experience in his speech.
“We live in a world where there is a lot of wealth in the hands of a few, while millions of people still don’t have enough to eat. Our efforts towards sustainable development are constantly at risk, and the institutions that govern the world still operate based on outdated ideas from the middle of the previous century,” he said.
Heavy rain during the monsoon spoiled some events that were supposed to happen earlier in the day. Despite the rain, leaders walked in the rain to honor Mahatma Gandhi, who fought for India’s independence, at the place where he was cremated. A ceremony where trees were planted was changed to become a symbolic action where G20 presidents traded young trees among themselves.
Mr Modi’s government has organized a fancy event, where delegates are enjoying cultural performances, a big dinner party, and excellent Indian hospitality.
However, some disagreements arose, particularly when Mr. Modi held up a sign at the beginning of the summit that said “Bharat” (which is the Hindi word for India). This caused some people to wonder if there might be a potential name change for India.
Mr Modi and his ministers said that the event was a big success and showed that India is a strong global leader.
“We have tried our best to include as many people as possible in this G20,” said Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India has successfully made sure that disagreements on certain matters do not take away attention from the important developmental issues that are of concern to the global community.
“She said that India’s G20 Presidency has successfully followed through with its actions”.