Russia accuses the West of having “destabilized” G20 meeting

Russia on Saturday accused Western powers of having “destabilized” the meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers in India trying to impose through “blackmail” a joint statement on the conflict of Ukrainewhich was not finally adopted.

“We regret that the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilized by the West as a whole and used in an anti-Russian and purely confrontational way,” The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to Moscow, the United States, the European Union and the G7 “disrupted collective decision-making” at the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the G20, made up of the largest industrialized and emerging economies on the planet.

The Western powers, continues the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, tried to impose their vision on the conflict in Ukraine through “clear blackmail” about the other participants in the conclave in the Indian city of Bangalore.

The United States and its allies, he stresses, acted by launching “ultimatums” to “numerous delegations”.

The two-day G20 Finance meeting concluded on Saturday without issuing a joint statement, due to disagreements with China over the war in Ukraine.

“Most of the members [del G20] strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.”with “different assessments of the situation and of the sanctions” imposed on Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Indian presidency of the meeting said in a statement.

A footnote specifies that two paragraphs of the draft declaration related to that conflict were “approved by all member countries, with the exception of Russia and China”.

Several officials linked to the negotiations, who requested anonymity, told AFP that China tried to tone down the terms referring to the situation in Ukraine.

Discussions focused in particular on the use of the word “war” to define the situation in Ukraine, which for a year has been facing a Russian military invasion.

Source: AFP