“We must recognize that multilateralism is in crisis,” Modi said in a pre-recorded statement at the start of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting.
The Prime Minister of India further emphasized.The experience of recent years – financial crises, diplomatic shifts, pandemics, terrorism and war – has clearly shown that global governance has failed.”.
At a meeting in New Delhi that began on Wednesday, the Indian prime minister appealed to G20 diplomatic leaders to look beyond geopolitical tensions. India, which is chairing this year’s G20 summit, has a long friendship with Russia and has not condemned the invasion of Ukraine. New Delhi is also an important military customer of Moscow and, unlike the West, has increased its imports of Russian oil over the past year.
India is seeking the G20 presidency this year to focus on issues like poverty reduction and global warming. However, the war in Ukraine has so far overshadowed the agenda items.
“We have our positions and perspectives on how to resolve these tensions. As the world’s largest economy, we also have a responsibility to those not in this room.“, he added.
Modi also advocated that we should not stand in the way of our ability to respond to problems that we cannot solve together.
In September 2022, Narendra Modi told Vladimir Putin that this is not a time for war, which was seen as a criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.
Now, Modi again asked the delegates to understand and work to “work through differences”.
On Wednesday, the EU’s high representative for external relations, Joseph Borrell, expressed his conviction that New Delhi would use the G20 meeting “to make Moscow understand that this war must end”. Blinken and Lavrov in the same room
For the first time since July, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken found himself in the same room as Russian envoy Sergey Lavrov.
The last meeting of American and Russian diplomatic representatives was in January 2022, just weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken again appealed to Russia to renew the agreement to export Ukrainian grain, which expires at the end of March.
An agreement signed between the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey in July 2022 helped alleviate a severe food crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov will attend the G20 to attack the West, his ministry said in a statement.
“The destructive policy of the United States and its allies has pushed the world very close to disaster, set back socio-economic development, and significantly worsened the situation of the poorest countries,” the note added.
The G20 foreign ministers meet after finance ministers failed to agree on a joint statement over the conflict in Ukraine.
China and Russia are the only G20 countries that disagree with the document’s passages referring to the “war in Ukraine”.
w/ agencies
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