G20 Finance Ministers fail to reach agreement due to geopolitical differences

The meeting of G20 finance ministers held in São Paulo closed this Thursday without a joint statement due to differences on issues.geopolitics” like the conflict in Ukraine, reported the Brazilian Government.

Brazilian Finance Minister and summit host Fernando Haddad said that geopolitical issues, especially ongoing conflicts, “contaminated” the possibility of reaching an agreement, despite the fact that there was consensus around issues of a more economic nature, such as inequality.

With no consensus reached, the host country, Brazil, will issue what is known as a presidential statement, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, who spoke on condition of anonymity as negotiations are ongoing.

The text that would serve as the basis for said statement, and which Bloomberg News obtained, refers to “increasing wars and conflicts” without identifying them, as well as to the “geoeconomic fragmentation”.

The tension around these issues has overshadowed other parts of the G20 agenda in São Paulo, focused on financial issues. Echoing an earlier draft, the text obtained by Bloomberg cites improving prospects for a “soft landing of the world economy” amid faster-than-expected declines in inflation rates.

This week’s meetings have generally seen a split between a bloc of advanced economies led by the United States — which has strongly opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has applied strict economic sanctions — and other countries that are They have been reluctant to support the sanctions approach, even though they have criticized the invasion.

China, the world’s second largest economy, has tacitly aligned itself with Russia in the conflict.

Regarding the conflict in Gaza, the majority of G20 members support the global consensus in favor of an immediate ceasefire. The United States has vetoed United Nations resolutions requiring it.

With information from EFE and Bloomberg