G20 draft declaration leaves paragraph on Ukraine blank

livemint.com:

climate change, cryptocurrencies and reforms in multilateral development banks. G20 sherpas have been struggling for days to agree on the language because of differences over the war, hoping to get Russia on board to produce a communique. India's G20 sherpa, or negotiator, Amitabh Kant, said earlier in the day the "New Delhi Leaders' Declaration is almost ready, I would not like to dwell on it ...

This declaration will be recommended to the leaders." One source told Reuters a joint declaration may or may not come to a unanimous agreement. It could have different paragraphs stating the views of different countries. Or it could record agreement and dissent in one paragraph.

"We may paper over the differences and make a general statement saying we should have peace and harmony across the world so that everybody agrees," a second source said. According to another senior source in one of the G20 countries, the paragraphs on the war on Ukraine had been agreed by Western countries and was sent to Russia for its views. The official said Russia had the option to accept the Western countries' views and give its dissent as a part of the statement.

In the absence of an agreement, India will have to issue a chair statement, which would mean that G20 for the first time in 20 years of summits will not have a declaration. An EU diplomat said India was doing an "excellent" job as host in looking for compromises. "But so far Russia is blocking a compromise that is acceptable otherwise for everyone else." The document showed that the group agreed to address debt vulnerabilities in low and middle-income countries "in an effective, comprehensive and systematic manner", but did not make any fresh action plan.