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It would have been a great surprise if the G20 foreign ministers had come up with a joint final declaration in Delhi today. The fruitless meeting of G20 finance ministers last week showed how deep the gulf between the big economic blocs is – and how great their rivalry is.
The war in Ukraine, with its global repercussions, has deepened the rift significantly. On the one hand the USA and its western allies. On the other, Russia and China, who have further expanded their alliance with this meeting.
“Had it been a perfect meeting, we would have adopted a joint communiqué,” Indian Foreign Minister and host Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said after the meeting. But it wasn’t a perfect meeting.
Ten minutes between Biden and Lavrov
This is already shown by the aggressive choice of words by the two main opponents: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained that the meeting had been heavily burdened by Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified war”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the other hand, accused the West of “blackmail and threats”.
In this heated atmosphere, some considered it a step forward that Blinken and Lavrov even spoke to each other. Only ten minutes on the sidelines of the meeting, but still. It was the first time since Russia went to war against Ukraine over a year ago.
A clear step backwards to Bali
The host, India, actually wanted to focus on issues from the Global South, which the subcontinent wants to establish as its mouthpiece. Issues such as food and energy security and climate change, for example. But the Ukraine conflict thwarted India’s plans.
This blocked the way to the joint final declaration. This means that the G20 have even fallen back a step. China had also condemned the Russian attack at the G20 summit in Bali last year.
India: an ambivalent host
The crack between the blocks is getting bigger. The interest politics of individual countries stronger. This can also be seen in the G20 host, India, which has so far avoided direct criticism of its largest arms supplier, Russia, and has regularly abstained from voting on UN resolutions condemning the war. While India stresses the importance of maintaining Ukraine’s sovereignty, it continues to buy cheap oil from Russia.
But when the interests of individual countries come to the fore again in times of war, it becomes increasingly difficult to solve global problems together.