Ukraine on Tuesday publicly sought a seat at the G20 table, adding to India’s headache as president of this year’s meetings after Russia and China made it clear they would collectively oppose any effort to force the Russia-Ukraine war on the grouping’s agenda.

Speaking on “Russia’s War In Ukraine: Why the World Should Care” at the Indian Council of World Affairs, Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova did not mince words while spelling out what Kyiv expected from India.

Stating that India should be on the right side of history — that is stand with Ukraine — she urged New Delhi to consider her country’s participation at upcoming events of the G20 including the summit in September. She added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be “happy” to address the gathering.

Without mentioning the Russia-China opposition to any effort to impose political issues on the agenda of multilateral fora like the G20, Dzhaparova said: “We believe that discussion about economy and the future economy/ economic situation in the world is not possible without a frank discussion about the repercussions of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Because it has an impact on the economic growth, it has an impact on the economy and the economies of G20 countries.”

At the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi in March, Russia and China had jointly opposed including the Ukraine-related paragraphs from the Bali declaration of the last session in a joint communique, arguing that the grouping is a forum for discussing finance and macro-economic policies. In the absence of a consensus, a Chair’s summary and outcome document was issued in place of a joint communique.

Later that month, in the joint statement issued after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Moscow visit, Russia and China said they “firmly condemn the politicisation of multilateral platforms and the attempts of certain countries to insert irrelevant issues in the agenda of multilateral platforms and dilute the primary tasks of relevant mechanisms”.

Last year, Indonesia — which hosted the Bali G20 — had to fight back pressure from some member countries to withdraw the invitation to Russia. Eventually, Zelensky got to address the summit via video link and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel to Bali — thereby avoiding a direct confrontation with the G7 countries which are backing Ukraine.

As of now, the Kremlin has not ruled out Putin’s presence in Delhi for the G20 summit on September 9 and 10. In the case of Ukraine being invited to the G20 meetings, India has remained non-committal, pointing to the fact that it is not among the list of non-member countries that New Delhi has sent invitations to as rotating president of the forum.