G20 countries disagree over the war in Ukraine
2023.02.25 14:04
G20 countries disagree over the war in Ukraine
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – At meetings in Bengaluru, the world’s top finance chiefs couldn’t come to an agreement on a statement because they couldn’t agree on what to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
After all 20 members of the Group of Twenty agreed on a joint statement at the leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November, the host nation of India took a step back by issuing a chair’s summary rather than a traditional communiqué. China and Russia disagreed with the two war-related paragraphs that were approved by all parties in November.
After the statement was released, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told reporters, “We jointly condemn the Russian attack on Ukraine — here there was very great common ground, however, with the exception of the very ambivalent Chinese.”
He remarked, “Here we can see a shift in the Chinese attitude, which is very regrettable.” Officials from Russia’s strategic partner argued that only “technical issues of international financial architecture” should be discussed.
A lot of the other stuff in the document, like how they felt about a global economic outlook that is still uncertain, was agreed upon by the participants. Even though economic conditions had slightly improved since the last meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in October, everyone agreed that there were still significant downside risks, such as “elevated inflation.”
Additionally, there was unanimous language regarding debt, something that was not anticipated when the gathering began.
India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said in the final press conference that after talks that had been “very stressful,” it was an accomplishment to have “no divergences” in the statement on debt issues.
An eighth draft of a communiqué, obtained by Bloomberg News hours earlier, revealed lingering disagreement on war-related lines and a section on debt restructuring and creditors’ obligations.
India’s position as a voice for all developing nations, also known as the Global South, coincided with the talks’ elevation of debt restructuring to a high priority. The final statement also mentioned that the multilateral development bank needs to be changed, which is a cause that, among others, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen supports.
The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, tried to find positive aspects in Saturday’s meeting of a sovereign debt roundtable that brought together public and private creditors with a basic commitment to find some common ground.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin, Georgieva said that China’s participation was “constructive” and that its officials had a responsibility to play a central role in negotiations as a big lender.
Debt Talks
The head of the IMF urged Zambia, the first African nation to default, to sign a memorandum of understanding as soon as possible. She stated that the nation deserved progress in talks with creditors and had done “an amazing job” reforming the economy.
The chair summary stated, “We welcome the conclusion of debt treatment for Chad and call for a rapid conclusion of work on debt treatment for Zambia and Ethiopia.” Participants urged a “swift resolution to Sri Lanka’s debt situation” and expressed optimism regarding the swift formation of an official creditor committee for Ghana.
Throughout the discussions, leaders also made the ongoing fight against inflation a top priority. In an interview with Bloomberg News on Saturday, Yellen stated that “inflation continues to be a problem.”
Separately, Georgieva pleaded with central banks to “stay the course” in order to restore price stability.
