New Delhi: With a week left for the G20 summit, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday (September 1) that Moscow will block the summit’s final declaration unless its position on Ukraine and other issues were reflected in the document.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin skipping the event, Lavrov is due to represent Russia at the summit in New Delhi on Sep 9 and 10.
“There will be no general declaration on behalf of all members if our position is not reflected,” Lavrov told students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations according to Reuters.
He said that if consensus could not be reached at the G20 meeting, a non-binding communique could be issued by the G20 presidency.
“Another option is to adopt a document that focuses on specific decisions in the sphere of G20 competences, and let everyone say the rest on their own behalf,” Lavrov said.
Russia and China agreed to two paragraphs regarding the Ukraine conflict in the Bali G20 declaration but withdrew this year.
All G20 meetings chaired under India’s presidency have had “chair’s summary and outcome documents” in lieu of joint statements, so as to circumvent the lack of consensus.
After Lavrov, Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov also reiterated that there was no consensus on the text related to the Ukraine war.
He underlined that Russia hoped the summit will be a “huge success”.
“Obviously, the situation is complicated. There is no consensus on [the Ukraine issue],” Alipov said at an interactive session in the Delhi-based Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
“If there is no consensus on only one issue and there is consensus on all other issues, what shall we do in this situation?” Alipov asked.
“We should remove the non-consensual issue from the agenda to agree on other very topical issues such as climate change, sustainable development, financial crisis [and] food crisis,” he said.
Alipov suggested that there are bodies like the UN Security Council which should deliberate on the Ukraine conflict, and that Russia is open for discussions.
He said the G20 was established for resolving financial and economic problems that the world faces, and not to deliberate on geopolitical issues.
“If there is no consensus, then political issues should not be discussed,” Alipov asserted.