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Russia satisfied with wording of G20 summit’s final declaration, says Kremlin

According to Dmitry Peskov, the declaration will also be published on the Kremlin’s website

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russia views the final declaration of the Bali-hosted G20 summit as a balanced document, which particularly points to different positions on the issue of Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"Definitely," he said, when asked if Russia was satisfied with the wording of the summit’s final text concerning the situation in Ukraine. "Different approaches and different views on the issue were taken into account and recorded in the declaration. As for the rest, undoubtedly, our experts - both Foreign Ministry officials and our [G20] Sherpa [Svetlana] Lukash - made great efforts to ensure the development of such a balanced document," Peskov added.

According to him, the declaration will also be published on the Kremlin’s website.

The most intriguing question concerning the G20 summit held on the Indonesian island of Bali was whether the participants would adopt a joint statement. Until the very last moment, there was no guarantee that they would succeed in agreeing on a final document. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said at a press conference following the summit that the provision on the conflict in Ukraine had triggered an extremely heated debate, lasting until midnight. In contrast, the rest of the declaration had not required so much effort to agree on. The final text contains over 50 paragraphs, saying that most G20 members "strongly condemned the war in Ukraine" but "there were other views and different assessments of the situation" as well. The declaration also notes that G20 countries have observed that the conflict in Ukraine "further adversely impacts the global economy.".