A week before the G-20 summit in New Delhi, Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov on September 1 came out strongly against western attempts to foreground the Ukraine crisis at the multilateral platform saying that political issues should not be raised in keeping with the tradition of G-20. He further said the language of Bali Declaration 2022 that had mention of Ukraine will have to change when the G-20 countries meet in New Delhi.
“Unfortunately, Indian Presidency in G-20 has experienced very strong pressure from some countries who in Russia’s opinion hijacked the G-20’s agenda making the Ukrainian crisis as one of the top issues. G-20 should focus on economic issues and finance but since last year it was decided by some members of the group to discuss political issues within the G-20 - something that we do not accept. If there is no consensus on something then the items without consensus should be removed taking into account that political issues have never been discussed in G-20,” said Ambassador Alipov during an interaction with the media at the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC). The Russian envoy said that even if the majority of members of G-20 support an item with a few like Russia standing away - such an item should not be on the agenda of G-20.
Referring to the Bali Declaration of 2022, he expressed Russia’s disapproval and said, “West should be open to change the para, the Bali para, they want to retain that.”
