He “broke”, as expected, the “20” strong economic bloc with Beijing clearly distanced itself and New Delhi to maintain a neutral position.
India, the G20 chair, was reluctant to mention the war in Ukraine while China and Russia refused to sign the joint statement.
Other finance ministers who took part in the talks strongly condemned Moscow for its war against Ukraine and threatened not to sign a text that did not condemn the Russian invasion.
The lack of full consensus among the G20 members led India as Chair to issue a summary of the outcome of the two-day finance ministers’ meeting talks and the differences expressed. The outcome of the meeting was similar to that reached in Bali last November when Indonesia issued a final declaration acknowledging the difference of opinion.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said it was unfortunate that China blocked the summit’s closing statement.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters earlier that it was “absolutely necessary” that the closing statement condemn Russia in the closing statement.
China, which did not condemn or praise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but placed some blame on the United States and NATO, made no secret of its desire to play a mediating role. Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, held a meeting on February 22 with Russia’s powerful President Vladimir Putin. Thus, the close bilateral relations between the two countries were confirmed with the senior Chinese official making his short televised remarks in which he said that China and Russia are ready to deepen their strategic cooperation.
The senior Chinese diplomat also saw, in addition to meeting with Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with the ultimate goal of “strengthening the relationship between the two allies.”
We remind you that in order to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, China has put forward a plan according to which Moscow and Kiev are required to start peace talks.
The text is titled “China’s position on the political solution to the Ukrainian crisis,” as Beijing presents it as a neutral country in the conflict.
What does the Chinese plan say?
The Beijing Peace Document states, among other things, that:
- Respect the territorial integrity of all nations.
- The security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries.
- Regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening and expanding military alliances.
- A cease-fire and an end to the fighting, so that the crisis in Ukraine does not escalate or get out of control.
- Gradual strengthening of the de-escalation zone and the gradual agreement of a cease-fire.
- Dialogue and negotiations are the only way out of the Ukrainian crisis.
- Maintaining the safety of nuclear plants and stopping attacks on nuclear facilities.
- Nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear war must not break out.
- Avoid any nuclear crisis.
- We stand against the development, production and use of biological and chemical weapons by all nations.
- We stand against unilateral sanctions not approved by the UN Security Council.
India and China are among the countries that abstained on Thursday at the United Nations, when an overwhelming majority of countries called for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and end the war.
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