Jim Chalmers says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to blame for global food and fuel crisis

Jim Chalmers has blasted Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at a summit attended by Russian officials.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: Jerad Williams

Jim Chalmers has issued a piercing condemnation of Russia’s ­illegal war against Ukraine at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Indonesia, claiming its actions had sparked a global energy and food security crisis.

The Treasurer, who sounded warnings about the flow-on ­effects for Australia’s economy, was backed up by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who ­accused Russian officials at the meeting of being responsible for the new global economic crisis.

The showdown with the Russian delegation at the summit was a harbinger for a leaders’ meeting later in the year, which Anthony Albanese is due to attend but which some Western countries have vowed to boycott in protest if Vladimir Putin remains invited as a member.

In an address to the Bali summit on Friday, which was attended by Russian officials, Mr Chalmers accused the Kremlin of inflicting not only a “terrible” human toll but being singularly responsible for slowing global economic growth and sparking an inflation crisis in the West.

“Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is a major obstacle to our goals,” Mr Chalmers told the summit. “Russia’s unjust actions have had a terrible human cost but they’ve also increased global uncertainty – prolonging and exacerbating the economic disrup­tions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is Russia’s invasion that has undermined energy and food ­security and not the sanctions and so Russia must take full responsibility for this.

“By increasing uncertainty around energy security, Russia’s war on Ukraine has also reinforced the urgency of seeking cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy – an area which my government can now show a renewed commitment to.”

Mr Chalmers warned that the global economic situation had ­deteriorated and that the world was now entering a “difficult, if not dangerous phase with costs and consequences for all of us”.

“This is the sobering reality that we confront,” he said.

“Many countries are simultaneously dealing with high and rising inflation and slowing economic growth, food and energy insecurity, tightening financial conditions and geopolitical challenges.

“And these developments are especially concerning in an environment of rising debt levels and limited fiscal space.

“The collective response will need to be carefully calibrated to ensure that growth is sustainable, balanced and inclusive, so that all of our economies and all of our ­societies can be stronger after Covid than they were ­before.”

Ms Yellen said that Russian ­finance officials at the meeting shared responsibility for the “horrific consequences” of the war.

“By starting this war, Russia is solely responsible for negative spillovers to the global economy, particularly higher commodity prices,” she said.

Mr Chalmers’ comments ­echoed those of former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who earlier this year led the charge at a finance ministers meeting of the G20 against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Russian ­officials that she held them personally responsible for “war crimes” committed during Russia’s war, a Western official told the news agency Reuters.

Ms Freeland, whose maternal grandparents were born in Ukraine, told the opening G20 session that the war was the ­“single biggest threat to the global economy right now”, the official said.