Despite a brief “contact” between American and Russian foreign ministers’ during the G20 meeting in the capital, the day-long deliberations ended without a joint communique as differences between the G7 countries in the grouping and Russia remained unbridgeable.

Instead, the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting (FMM) settled on a Chair’s Summary & Outcome Document similar to the one issued after the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Bengalore on Sunday. Russia and China objected to the inclusion of two paragraphs relating to the Ukraine war from the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration. Their objection to the war reference in the outcome document has been recorded as a footnote.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar sought to drive home the point that there was agreement on 95 per cent of the paragraphs in the outcome document. “Do appreciate that on a bulk of issues that concern the global south there was a considerable meeting of minds which has been captured in the outcome document… We could not get everyone on the same page on two of the paragraphs.”

This was endorsed later in the evening by US secretary of state Antony Blinken when asked if the failure to bring out a communique would continue into the summit in September. “The Outcome document reflects shared agreements on a number of issues by all of the foreign minister. On Russia’s aggression, you have virtually everyone signing on to what was agreed in Bali. The two holdouts, of course, were Russia and China. We see broad consensus across the G20 to work together, to act together and make commitments together.

“Prime Minister Modi today said ‘we should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can’. What we saw today was a very good reflection of what the Prime Minister said. … My full expectation is that when the leaders get together you will see further very concrete outcomes that reflect that consensus.”

Jaishankar, however, sidestepped a question on whether the meeting between US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 was facilitated by India. Later, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that Blinken asked for “contact” with Lavrov. They had the “contact” in the second session of the G20 FMM, she said, maintaining that there was no fullfledged interaction between the two.

Late in the evening, Blinken confirmed the brief exchange and said he asked Russia to reverse its decision to suspend participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

Apart from the inclusion of the two paragraphs on the war in the document, the Russian side was also peeved by the western countries’ refusal to accept Russia’s demand that the document include a call for an investigation into the NordStream blasts.

Though Russia and China had signed up for the two paragraphs of the Bali declaration that they are opposing now, Lavrov said the situation on the ground had changed since November. “They [western countries] refused to accept another fact in this context, which reflects the events that have taken place since then. I am referring to the terrorist act against the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Our proposal to include in the document the need for an impartial and honest investigation was categorically rejected by our western partners,’’ he said, disclosing the failure to arrive at a consensus before Jaishankar.

Without specifically mentioning Nord Stream, the outcome document does have a reference to terrorism targeting infrastructure: “We strongly condemn all terrorist acts against critical infrastructure, including critical energy facilities, and against other vulnerable targets.’’Russia had accused Ukraine of terrorism after the Crimeabridge explosion in Octoberand the BBC had then reported that “Ukrainian officials responded with thinly veiled approval to the explosion — but have not indicated that their forces were behind the attack”.

That the divide within the G20 would remain unbridgeable was evident before the meeting itself, after the group photograph was given a miss for the second year in a row as the G7 countries, in particular, did not want to be seen in the same frame as Lavrov.

The meeting began with an acknowledgement of this divide when Prime Minister Modi said: “You are meeting at a time of deep global divisions. As Foreign Ministers, it is but natural that your discussions are affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day. We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved. However, as the leading economies of the world, we also have a responsibility towards those who are not in this room.”