NEW DELHI, March 2. /TASS/. Participants in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in India have reiterated their positions on the conflict in Ukraine, also condemning Russia, but ‘other views and different assessments of the situation’ were heard, says the Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document.
"The war in Ukraine has further adversely impacted the global economy," the document said. "We reiterated our national positions as expressed in other fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, which, in Resolution No. ES-11/1 dated 2 March 2022, as adopted by majority vote (141 votes for, 5 against, 35 abstentions, 12 absent) deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine," it went on to say.
"Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine," the document said. However, "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions," it added. It also pointed out that the conflict in Ukraine is "exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy - constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks."
"Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy," it stressed. As follows from the document, the paragraph that concerns Ukraine was agreed upon by all member countries except Russia and China.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following the meeting that the declaration on behalf of all foreign ministers could not be approved because the West tried to bring the situation around Ukraine to the forefront. "The discussion, at least as concerns speeches by Western delegations, first and foremost by the G7 countries, came down to emotional statements. And all of this, of course, was done to the detriment of a normal discussion of the problems that are really on the G20 agenda," he said.
In particular, Western nations fully ignored open admissions from the West’s representatives regarding the Minsk deals that "none of them were going to comply with the Minsk agreements, and the purpose of signing the Minsk agreements from the point of view of Western interests was to buy time to pump Ukraine with weapons and prepare it for war against Russia," Lavrov stressed.