‘G20 can’t ignore Russia’s war’
NEW DELHI : Germany will not sign a joint statement that ignores Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, said Germany’s G20 sherpa Jorg Kukies. In an interview with Mint, Kukies said that while G20 countries are willing to compromise on language relating to the Ukraine war, Germany does not agree with the position, as articulated by China, that discussion of the Ukraine war does not belong in an economic grouping like the G20. Kukies, who also serves as Germany’s state secretary for finance, noted the need for reforming multilateral development banks and increasing their lending capacity.
Kukies was optimistic that the Delhi G20 summit will see some movement on making this funding available. Will leaders reach a consensus on a joint G20 communique? This summit will not be business as usual, because of Russia’s war against Ukraine. This is a clear breach of international law and the territorial integrity of a sovereign country.
This is something that we can’t simply ignore. Your prime minister, Narendra Modi, correctly said that this era should not be of war, and this made it almost verbatim into last year’s G20 declaration. The fact that two countries are now refusing to sign language which they were willing to sign up to last year, is of course highly concerning to us.
All of those paragraphs were agreed to by Russia, joined by China. We showed in Bali that we’re willing to go to great lengths to accept consensual language. We accepted, for example, that the condemnation of Russia was clarified as being one that most countries share, not all.
We certainly are willing and able to find a solution. But what we can’t do is say G20 has nothing to do with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Simply because every
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