Delhi: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hailed the G20 summit for delivering what he described as the harshest international rebuke yet of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, even as the leaders’ declaration watered down its comments on the conflict in several key respects.
Speaking at the end of the first day of the summit in New Delhi, Albanese said world leaders had issued an “extraordinarily strong statement” on the war, describing it as “the strongest language yet to be agreed by the international community”.
“Russia has to have gotten the message that this is having a devastating impact and that the world wants this war to stop because of the impact on the people of Ukraine, but also because of the impact that it’s having on global inflation, on global economies,” Albanese said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Anthony Albanese upon his arrival for the G20 Summit.Credit: AP
Putin skipped the G20 summit for a second year running, while Chinese President Xi Jinping also decided not to attend the event since the first time he came to office.
Albanese also declared his desire to finalise a sweeping free trade deal with the European Union by the end of the year before upcoming European elections make an agreement too difficult to strike.
Hee said “speaker after speaker” at the summit had “reiterated the need for Russia to stop this war, which [Putin] can do today”.
But the G20’s language was softer than last year’s statement in Bali, dropping a direct reference to the “war against Ukraine” and a paragraph that said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine”.
Instead, this year’s G20 declaration did not apportion blame for the 18-month-long conflict and urged all states to “act in a manner consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter”.
“All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state,” the G20 declaration said.
The leaders said they “highlighted the human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine” but added “there were different views and assessments of the situation”.
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Russia was only named directly in reference to its deliveries of grain and fertiliser supplies.
“We call on all states to uphold the principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty, international humanitarian law, and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability,” the statement said.
The final G20 leaders’ declaration followed fears that no declaration would be issued during this year’s summit and came a day ahead of schedule before US President Joe Biden and Albanese fly out early on Sunday.
While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoided the embarrassment of presiding over the first G20 summit not to issue a joint declaration, the statement was condemned by Ukrainian human rights groups for failing to criticise Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to US President Joe Biden during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Delhi.Credit: Getty Images
“This weak G20 statement is not only cowardly by not even mentioning Russia or its ongoing war crimes but completely fails to address the responsibility the G20 should have to stop Russia and its geopolitical weapons,” said Svitlana Romanko, the director of Ukrainian advocacy group Razom We Stand.
India, which relies on Russia for military supplies, has attempted to shift the spotlight of the G20 away from Ukraine and towards trade, infrastructure investment and climate change.
Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defended the statement, saying: “Regarding the change in language on the Russia-Ukraine conflict from the Bali Declaration: Bali was Bali, this is Delhi. Many things have happened since the Bali Declaration.”
Albanese said he discussed free trade negotiations with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday night and an encounter the previous night with European Union commissioner Ursula von der Leyen.
“I would like to see the Australia- EU free trade agreement settled as soon as possible,” Albanese said.
“It’s quite clear, with the timetables that are there, that the prospects of that being done are much greater this year than next year because it does run into elections.”
The G20 leaders warned in their declaration that the path ahead was unpredictable as the world struggled to recover from COVID-19. “Global economic growth is below its long-run average and remains uneven,” the statement said.
The leaders of the world’s largest emitters committed to “urgently accelerate our actions to address environmental crises and challenges including climate change” despite climate scientists warning deeper cuts were needed to stop the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees above preindustrial levels.
