The West was unable to “Ukrainaise” the G20 Summit agenda as the Indian Presidency consolidated members of the ‘Global South’ and enabled them to protect their legitimate interests, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
“The active role of Indian Presidency genuinely consolidated G20 members from the Global South, particularly our BRICS partners. Thanks to the consolidated positions, the Global South countries were able to uphold and protect their legitimate interests that caused the West to be unable to Ukrainaise the agenda,” Lavrov said at a media briefing on Sunday.
India prevented the West from shifting the agenda to Ukraine rather than addressing the problem of the Global South, the Russian Foreign Minister added.
On rupee balance
On Russia’s huge rupee balance that has accumulated mostly on account of its defence exports to India, Lavrov said that India will provide it various options for investments. “Our Indian friends said they would propose promising areas they can be invested in…Right now our governments are talking how to use and invest them to mutual benefit,” he said, adding that these matters were discussed at a meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar in Jakarta recently before the East Asia Summit.
The two-day G20 Summit, that concluded in New Delhi on Sunday, delivered the `G20 Leaders New Delhi Declaration’ on the first day itself after reaching a consensus on the language to be used on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. There was wide divergence between members on the matter with the Western nations wanting clearly worded criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine while China and Russia opposed its inclusion in the declaration.
Lavorv commended the fact that the declaration did not name Russia anywhere. “The text doesn’t mention Russia at all,” he said. The Ukraine crisis is mentioned but only in the context of the need to settle all conflicts that are there in the world and settle them according to UN charter, he added.
“The moment we stop talking about Ukraine the West is unable to carry out an intelligent discussion,” he said.
Global governance
The Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that the New Delhi Summit provided a direction towards fairness in global governance and global finance as well.
“I want to express my gratitude to India for preventing attempts to politicise the G20,” he said, adding the West will not be able to remain a “hegemony” as we see new centres of power coming up in the world.