G-20: India working on Russia consensus, keeping eye on other core issues

Communique is a consensus document and needs the consent of every member of G-20

India, which currently holds the presidency of the G20, is trying to form a consensus among the member nations on the Russia-Ukraine war so as to not hinder the progress made on various other issues, such as debt restructuring, food security, multilateral reforms, digital economy, and financial inclusion, Business Standard has learnt.

Ahead of the indicative deadline of 5 pm, Saturday, for the official communiqué of the ongoing G20 meeting in Bengaluru, India’s efforts have been to find common ground between the Group of 7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, and United Kingdom) and some other nations.

In July 2022, at a meeting of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors (FMCBG) in Bali, no communiqué was released as the nations could not reach a consensus on the issue of the war. In the end, Indonesia, the then host, had to resort to what is known as a ‘chair summary’ statement, in which Russia was mentioned only once.

India’s efforts will be to ensure that this is not repeated, and that a communiqué is released at the end of the current FMCBG meeting in Bengaluru. The communiqué may acknowledge that global macroeconomic conditions have somewhat improved in the past few months and inflationary pressures have eased, though headwinds remain.

“There is a gap on the issue of Russia. And clearly, this being the anniversary of the war, many discussions have centred around it. Our aim as the host is to find consensus,” said a senior official.

Communiqué is a consensus document and needs the consent of every member of G-20.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina are not attending the Bengaluru meeting, and are represented by their deputies instead.

According to sources, a stance that could be acceptable to India is the language on Russia-Ukraine somewhat similar to that of the G-20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration last November. That was the last meeting under Indonesia’s presidency.

“It is a possibility that the communiqué could have similar language on the war to that of Bali. On other issues, there has been a lot of progress and many positives have emerged,” the official said.

Sources indicate that substantial progress has been made on the issue of sovereign debt of low- and middle-income nations. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the G20 (under India’s presidency) have convened a new Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable to find lasting solutions to the stressed sovereign debt levels of low-income nations. 

On Wednesday, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had said the US would continue to push for all bilateral official creditors, including China, to participate in meaningful debt treatments for developing countries and emerging markets in distress.

It is learnt that there have also been productive talks on food security, financial inclusion, digital economy, and multilateral institution reforms.

India is averse to use of the term ‘war’ in the communiqué, but softer terms like ‘crisis’ may not be acceptable to the G-7 members, all of whom are part of G-20 as well. The Bali Leaders’ Declaration had called it the ‘war in Ukraine’ but also used Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landmark statement: “Today’s era must not be of war.”

Sources said the issue of financial support to Ukraine was being discussed in Bengaluru and would also be taken up at the G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting next week in New Delhi.