NEW DELHI, January 27. /TASS/. Russia played a key part in drawing up the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration adopted at the Group of Twenty summit in Indonesia, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant told TASS on Friday.
"In Bali I negotiated. I was present in Indonesia where Russia played [a] very key and critical role, where the Russian Sherpa (Russian Presidential Representative to the G20 Svetlana Lukash - TASS) and Mr. [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov played a very important role in enabling us to arrive at a final document, the declaration," he said adding. "In the declaration Russia played a very key and critical role."
Kant said that the original document, which had been drafted by the G7 for the G20 summit, "was very strongly against Russia."
"So G7 had very strong argument that while it’s [an] economic forum, the [Ukraine conflict] is impacting fuel, food, fertilizer. And they [G7] said while G20 is an economic forum because it is impacting the economy, we should strongly condemn Russia," the Indian Sherpa said.
According to Kant, "India joined hands with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and many other countries" and said that the "G20 is only [an] economic forum. The forum to discuss security issues is the UN Security Council." Afterwards, it was agreed to take the UN General Assembly’s resolution on Ukraine for the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration.
"Then we convinced Russia to accept that rather than [include the provision] outright condemning Russia," Kant said. "Russia finally agreed to it. It was itself a big thing."
The G20 summit was held in Indonesia’s Bali in November 2022. It concluded with the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration containing more than 50 points.