NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India was fully prepared to contribute to the peace process to find a solution to the Ukraine conflict even though sharp differences prevented the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) from issuing a joint communiqué despite efforts by countries from the Global South, including India, to build consensus.
“From the very beginning of the Ukraine conflict, India has made it clear that this dispute can only be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy. India is fully prepared to contribute to any peace process,” said PM Modi after bilateral talks with visiting Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
At the G20 meet, the PM said a single issue should not become a hurdle towards finding the common ground on other equally pressing issues. However, with the West insisting on condemning Russia, surprisingly, even in the culture section of the draft, the G20 instead settled for a Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document. On Ukraine, it copied two paras on it from the Bali G20 Declaration but there were no objections from China and Russia unlike at the Bengaluru G20 Finance Ministers’ Meeting last weekend.
“No group can claim global leadership without listening to those most affected by its decisions. As the leading economies of the world, we also have a responsibility towards those who are not in this room,” the PM observed in a video address, adding that it is natural to discuss geopolitical issues but the world looks upon G20 to ease the challenges of growth, financial stability, transnational crime, and food and energy security.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar drew comfort from the fact that despite the differences over Ukraine, the G20 FMM arrived at a consensus on many important issues. “This will hold in good stead as we move ahead with other meetings,” he told the media after the meeting. The key takeaways were a strong sentiment to strengthen multilateralism, asking multilateral banks to mobilise additional financing, stressing the need for resilient food, fertiliser and energy supply chains and condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, he said.
The conference saw considerable vitriol on Ukraine with some western leaders, especially from the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands, wanting the entire G20 bloc to copy the G7’s sanctions against Russia.