Russia praises G20 statement that Albanese called ‘harshest yet’ against war

Delhi: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the G20 summit for delivering what he described as the harshest international rebuke yet of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, even as the leaders’ declaration watered down its comments on the conflict and the statement drew praise from Moscow.

Speaking in New Delhi, Albanese said world leaders had issued an “extraordinarily strong statement” on the war, describing it as “the strongest language yet to be agreed by the international community”.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Anthony Albanese upon his arrival for the G20 Summit.Credit: AP

“Russia has to have gotten the message that this is having a devastating impact and that the world wants this war to stop because of the impact on the people of Ukraine, but also because of the impact that it’s having on global inflation, on global economies,” Albanese said.

But the G20’s language was softer than last year’s statement in Bali, dropping a direct reference to the “war against Ukraine” and a paragraph that said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine”.

Instead, this year’s G20 declaration did not apportion blame for the 18-month-long conflict and urged all states to, “act in a manner consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”.

“All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state,” the G20 declaration said.

The leaders said they “highlighted the human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine” but added “there were different views and assessments of the situation”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the summit as a milestone and claimed Russia had been able to prevent the West’s attempts to “Ukrainise” the agenda.

“I think that a healthy solution has been found in the declaration regarding the need to strive for a clear and equitable balance of interests,” he said.

Russia’s G20 sherpa, Svetlana Lukash, praised the statement on Sunday.

“There were very difficult negotiations on the Ukraine issue,” she said, according to Russian news agency Interfax. “Everything was reflected in a balanced form.”

Putin skipped the G20 summit for a second year running. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for alleged crimes in Ukraine in March. Chinese President Xi Jinping also decided not to attend the event since the first time he came to office, raising fears the summit was losing its ability to deal with two of its most pressing issues: the war in Ukraine and China’s territorial, diplomatic and economic ambitions.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host the G20 in Rio de Janeiro in 2024, said Putin would not be arrested if he travelled to Brazil next year.

“I believe that Putin can go easily to Brazil,” Lula said on Sunday in an interview with Brazilian news agency Firstpost. “What I can say to you is that if I’m president of Brazil, and he comes to Brazil, there’s no way he will be arrested.”

The comments highlight the growing divide within the G20 between the West, and some developing countries including Brazil and host India, which rely on Moscow for military supplies and want to maintain strong ties with Russia despite the global impacts of the war.

While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoided the embarrassment of presiding over the first G20 summit not to issue a joint declaration, the negotiations went on until the last minute after weeks of calls from the US and Europe for the group of the world’s largest economies to take a stronger stance on the conflict.

Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defended the statement. “Regarding the change in language on the Russia-Ukraine conflict from the Bali Declaration: Bali was Bali, this is Delhi,” he said. “Many things have happened since the Bali Declaration.”

Thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been killed in the past year, including 900 Ukrainian civilians by Russian cluster bombs, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition. Russian drones attacked Kyiv early on Sunday, hours after the G20 declaration was signed. On Wednesday, a Russian attack killed 17 people in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka.

Ukraine foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said the declaration was “nothing to be proud of”.

The statement was condemned by Ukrainian human rights groups for failing to criticise Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This weak G20 statement is not only cowardly by not even mentioning Russia or its ongoing war crimes but completely fails to address the responsibility the G20 should have to stop Russia and its geopolitical weapons,” said Svitlana Romanko, the director of Ukrainian advocacy group Razom We Stand.

Modi has spent the summit burnishing India’s global image and attempting to shift the spotlight of the G20 away from Ukraine and towards trade, infrastructure investment and climate change.

On Sunday G20 leaders handed over tree saplings to Modi ahead of the final session of the summit: “one earth, one family, one future”.

In their declaration, the leaders of the world’s largest emitters committed to “urgently accelerate our actions to address environmental crises and challenges including climate change” despite climate scientists warning deeper cuts were needed to stop the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Albanese told leaders they were at a critical juncture. “Climate change is having damaging and devastating consequences,” he said on Sunday. “Now is the time for us to come together.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to US President Joe Biden during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Delhi.Credit: Getty Images

Albanese also declared his desire to finalise a sweeping free trade deal with the European Union by the end of the year before upcoming European elections make an agreement too difficult to strike.

The Prime Minister said he discussed free trade negotiations with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Union commissioner Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday night.

“I would like to see the Australia- EU free trade agreement settled as soon as possible,” Albanese said.

“It’s quite clear, with the timetables that are there, that the prospects of that being done are much greater this year than next year because it does run into elections.”

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