A senior G20 supply mentioned negotiations over the communique had been tough

Bengaluru:

Finance leaders of the world’s greatest economies had been entangled in variations on Saturday over the struggle in Ukraine and on resolving the debt burden of distressed creating nations, individuals mentioned.

The assembly of finance ministers and central financial institution chiefs of the Group of 20 (G20), hosted by India, was more likely to finish later within the day and not using a joint communique as a result of there was no consensus on the right way to describe the battle in Ukraine, delegates mentioned.

The United States and its allies within the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers have been adamant in demanding the communique squarely condemn Russia for the invasion of its neighbour, which has been opposed by the Russian and Chinese delegations, they mentioned.

“I think there has to be a statement in the communique condemning Russia’s war,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Reuters on the sidelines of the assembly. “It’s something that I think is absolutely necessary.

“And I feel the G7 is actually united on that, so it is one thing that I might count on and I feel is important and acceptable,” she said in an interview.

Russia, a member of the G20 but not the G7, refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “particular army operation”, and avoids calling it an invasion or war.

India is pressing the meeting to avoid using the word “struggle” in any communique, G20 officials have told Reuters. India, which holds the this year’s G20 presidency, has kept a largely neutral stance on the war, declining to blame Russia for the invasion, seeking a diplomatic solution and sharply boosting its purchases of Russian oil.

India and China were among the nations that abstained on Thursday when U.N. voted overwhelmingly to demand Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine and stop fighting.

Besides the G7 nations, the G20 bloc also includes such countries as Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

A senior G20 source said negotiations over the communique were difficult, with Russia and China blocking proposals by Western countries.

The source and several other officials said barring a last-minute surprise, a consensus on the communique was unlikely and that the meeting was likely to end with a statement by the host summarising the discussions.

“In the absence of a consensus, the choice for India could be to difficulty a chair assertion,” one official said.

India’s foreign, finance and information ministries did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

DEBT NEGOTIATIONS

On the sidelines, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a meeting on Saturday with the World Bank, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the G7 on restructuring debt for distressed economies, but there were disagreements among members, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

“We simply completed a session by which it was clear that there’s a dedication to bridge variations for the advantage of international locations,” Georgieva, who co-chaired the roundtable with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, told reporters.

Yellen said there were no “deliverables” from the meeting, which was mostly organisational.

Further discussions of the panel are planned around the time of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in April.

Pressure has been building on China, the world’s largest bilateral creditor, and other nations to take a large haircut in loans given to struggling developing nations.

In a video address to the G20 meeting on Friday, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun reiterated Beijing’s position that the World Bank and other multilateral development banks participate in debt relief by taking haircuts alongside bilateral creditors.

Yellen had said before the debt meeting that she would press all bilateral creditors, including China, to participate in meaningful discussions, adding that debt treatment for Zambia and financing assurances for Sri Lanka were “most pressing”.

Zambia owed Beijing nearly $6 billion of a total external debt of $17 billion at the end of 2021, according to government data, while Ghana owes China $1.7 billion, according to the International Institute of Finance, a financial services trade association focussed on emerging markets.

Sri Lanka owed Chinese lenders $7.4 billion – or nearly a fifth of public external debt – by the end of 2022, calculations by the China Africa Research Initiative think tank show.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)