Russia’s foreign minister has hailed the G20 summit in Delhi as a success, after Moscow was shielded from criticism over the Ukraine war in a joint declaration.
“We were able to prevent the west’s attempts to Ukrainise the summit agenda,” Sergei Lavrov said as the two-day meeting drew to a close.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed a diplomatic triumph after all members of the group, including China, reached a toughly negotiated consensus and signed a joint declaration on issues covering climate, economic cooperation and, most divisively, the war in Ukraine.
The language on the invasion of Ukraine was noticeably softened, seemingly to appease China and Russia, omitting any condemnation of Moscow or reference to Russia’s aggressions, which was included in last year’s G20 joint statement signed in Bali. The new wording drew criticism from Kyiv, which said the joint statement was “nothing to be proud of”.
Lavrov claimed it was a diplomatic win for Russia, saying the declaration “fully reflects our position”.
He said he had not expected western countries to agree to the statement, after the Russian and Chinese delegations made it clear they no longer accepted the wording used to condemn the invasion of Ukraine at last year’s summit.
“Perhaps it was the voice of their conscience,” Lavrov said. “Frankly speaking, we didn’t expect that. We were ready to defend our wording of the text.”
He said it was a sign that the global south would no longer blindly follow the western powers. “They don’t want to be told to follow the Zelenskiy formula,” Lavrov said, referring to the Ukrainian president. “This is disrespectful to developing countries. This is neo-colonialism from western countries and they have failed this time.”
Lavrov praised the role of India in the negotiations, claiming it had pushed back against attempts to “politicise” the G20. India has deep historical ties with Russia, which is its largest supplier of arms, and has remained firmly neutral on the Ukraine war. The Indian side turned down requests by other members for Ukraine to take part in this year’s G20 summit.
The US and EU countries, who have spent billions arming Ukraine against Russia and continue to condemn Russia for its aggression, insisted that the agreement was a step forward in pushing for peace in the region.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Sunday that the G20 summit had “sent a message of peace while Russia is still waging its war in Ukraine” and had “confirmed the isolation of Russia”.
“Let’s be honest, the G20 is not a forum for political discussion,” Macron said. “This is not the place where we will see some major developments given the situation on the ground.”
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said he had been hoping for stronger language on Russia’s role in the declaration, but added: “If it were up to other leaders, it would have been much weaker.”
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was in Russia last week to meet Vladimir Putin over the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal – which had allowed grain and other commodities to safely leave Ukraine ports until Moscow stopped it in July – said he had discussed it again at length with Lavrov at the summit.
While warning western powers that “any initiative that isolates Russia is bound to fail”, Erdoğan said he was “not hopeless about the grain deal, it could start again”.
Many of the G20 leaders were keen to emphasise that progress had been made on environmental commitments. On Sunday morning, Rishi Sunak pledged a record $2bn to the Green Climate Fund, following on from a commitment made by the G20 leaders to increase climate funding.
However, the leaders’ declaration drew criticism for not going far enough on fossil fuels and coal. The commitment to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal remained the same, and other fossil fuels such as oil and gas were not mentioned at all.
Macron expressed his disappointment at what he described as the “insufficient” commitments by G20 members on climate issues and said it was also the responsibility of emerging economies to commit to net zero targets and weaning off coal in the next decade.
“Many countries need to do more,” he said, adding that he was “sounding the alarm” over the global failure so far to meet the commitments laid out in the Paris climate agreement.
Perhaps the most significant announcement of the weekend was the launch of a new economic corridor that will link India with the Middle East and Europe through a new network of rail and shipping infrastructure – although it remains in the early stages of planning.
The ambitious project was launched on Saturday by Modi, Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The plans and funding for the project will be laid out over the next few weeks.
