The optics-friendly Narendra Modi government would like to ensure that the divide within the G20 over the Russia-Ukraine war does not eclipse the agenda drawn up for the foreign ministers' meeting (FMM) of the grouping in the capital on Thursday but voices from various participating countries indicate that India would spend a considerable part of the day managing the differences.
Briefing the media on the eve of the G20 FMM, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra sidestepped specific questions on how India planned to avoid this meeting going the course taken by the G20 finance ministers' meeting last weekend where a joint communique could not be issued as Russia and China opposed the inclusion of any condemnation of Moscow for the conflict. What was issued instead was a "Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document" with paragraphs on the war from the G20 Bali summit joint declaration with a note that Russia and China opposed their inclusion.
Insisting that there was nothing controversial about the outcome document issued after the finance ministers' meeting, Kwatra said in response to a clutch of questions on how India — as the chair of the G20 — proposed to manage the differences over the conflict: "We are very clear that the foreign ministers should focus on all the priorities very relevant in the global context."
Conceding that it is only natural that the developing situation in the Russia-Ukraine war will be an important point of discussion during the G20 FMM, Kwatra said more important would be the understanding that the ministers develop on the impact of the war on the rest of the world — particularly with regard to food, fuel and fertiliser security. He, however, maintained that it would not be proper for him to pre-judge the outcome of the meeting.
The Russian embassy in New Delhi has made it clear that foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will "present an unbiased factual picture of the act of terrorism — the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the EU and NATO zone of responsibility’’ among other issues like the seizing of Russian humanitarian fertiliser shipments designated for Africa, and the barriers being imposed by the West to block the export of energy and agricultural products.
British foreign secretary James Cleverly, according to the British High Commission here, will continue to call Russia out at the G20 and work with partners to mitigate the global impacts of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has gone on record saying that the international community needs to come together and ensure that international law prevails against Russia's blatant violation and disregard for the UN Charter. The US predictably will be leading the charge against Russia.
Two prominent absentees at the G20 FMMs will be the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers apparently due to domestic compulsions. While the official reason for Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi's absence is the Budget Session of the Diet (Japanese parliament), it is also being interpreted as a bit of a snub in certain quarters. However, Kwatra maintained that the two countries enjoy a "sterling cooperation" and was confident the Japanese delegation would make helpful contributions at the meeting.
The meeting started late on Wednesday evening with a networking reception and conversation over dinner. Besides Japan and South Korea, three other prominent absentees this evening were US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who was scheduled to arrive in Delhi from Tashkent later in the night, and his French counterpart Catherine Colonna who reaches here on Thursday morning as does Chinese foreign minister Qing Gang.
