The G20 summit in New Delhi, India, concluded with a communique on Saturday that called for “comprehensive, just, and durable peace in Ukraine” — but did not name Russia as the aggressor.
The summit declaration included over two dozen pages of talk about green energy, sustainable growth, gender equality, and “creating a more inclusive world,” but only two repetitive paragraphs about the defining military, political, and economic crisis of the modern world:
Concerning the war in Ukraine, while recalling the discussion in Bali, we reiterated our national positions and resolutions adopted at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly (A/RES/ES-11/1 and A/RES/ES-11/6) and underscored that all states must act in a manner consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in its entirety. In line with the UN Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.
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We call on all states to uphold the principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty, international humanitarian law, and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, and efforts to address crises as well as diplomacy and dialogue are critical. We will unite in our endeavor to address the adverse impact of the war on the global economy and welcome all relevant and constructive initiatives that support a comprehensive, just, and durable peace in Ukraine that will uphold all the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter for the promotion of peaceful, friendly, and good neighborly relations among nations in the spirit of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, welcomes U.S. President Joe Biden for the first session of the G20 Summit, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, September 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
There were two other mentions of the Ukraine crisis in the document, pertaining to the “human suffering and negative added impacts” of the war on global food, energy, and financial stability. The G20 applauded Turkey for negotiating a resumption of grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to “meet the demand in developing and least developed countries, particularly those in Africa.”
Even this anodyne paragraph was difficult for the G20 to squeeze into its declaration. The draft version of the communique seen by some media organizations on Friday left the Ukraine paragraph blank. G20 negotiators were reportedly stalemated after days of wrangling over what the summit would say about Ukraine. Sources close to the negotiations said the final version of the communique might have different statements from different groups of nations about Ukraine, or might settle for a generic homily to “peace and harmony across the world” without naming Ukraine at all.
Russia, of course, was not going to allow a joint statement that named Moscow as the aggressor in a brutal war of conquest. One of the possibilities floated on Friday by desperate negotiators was a paragraph denouncing the invasion of Ukraine followed by a paragraph offering Russia’s rebuttal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) helps his wife Olena Zelenska disembark the plane as they arrive on the airfield in the Skrydstrup Airbase in Vojens, Denmark, on August 20, 2023. (SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)
In the end, the G20 managed to include language wishing for peace in Ukraine without dwelling on why there is a grievous shortage of peace at the moment, or which party has been ignoring the “principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty” for the past year and a half.
The 2023 New Delhi summit statement was actually weaker on Ukraine than the 2022 Bali summit declaration was. Last year’s communique defined the Ukraine crisis as a “war” of “aggression,” identified Russia as the aggressor, and demanded the “complete and unconditional withdrawal” of Russian forces from Ukrainian soil.
The G20 concluded for the second year in a row without a “family photo” of all the participants. This was reportedly a mute gesture of displeasure with Russia, as many of the G20 leaders refused to be photographed alongside Moscow’s representatives, but none of them made a public statement to that effect.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed the G20 communique as a “step in the right direction” and a “milestone” in the rising power of the “Global South,” an alliance of developing nations that Russia and China claim to lead.
Ukrainian military practice assault tactics at a military training area before the counteroffensive operation during Russia’s war against Ukraine on March 22, 2023, in Ukraine. (Dmytro Larin/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
“Speaking frankly, we didn’t expect that. We were ready to defend our wording of the text. The Global South is no longer willing to be lectured,” Lavrov trumpeted.
The Ukrainians, on the other hand, were furious with the weasel wording in the summit communique.
“Ukraine is grateful to its partners who tried to include strong wording in the text. At the same time, the G20 has nothing to be proud of in the part about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” said Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.
“Obviously, the participation of the Ukrainian side would have allowed the participants to better understand the situation. The principle of ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ remains as key as ever,” Nikolenko said, referring to the G20’s decision to invite Russia to the summit in New Delhi, but not Ukraine.
The White House bizarrely hailed the G20 communique as a success, even though a more stunning repudiation of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy leadership would be difficult to imagine.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends the launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, Saturday, September 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evelyn Hockstein)
“The G20 statement includes a set of consequential paragraphs on the war in Ukraine, and from our perspective, it does a very good job of standing up for the principle that states cannot use force to seek territorial acquisition,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Saturday.
The UK Guardian on Sunday suggested the communique was actually a major flex of India’s growing influence in both the G20 and the “Global South.”
“The outcome obviously reflects India’s rigid determination not to take sides in the war, but it is extraordinary that the majority of countries at the G20 that do oppose Russia’s war of conquest were so prepared to be muzzled by the minority that prefer to look away,” the Guardian said.
The Guardian found off-the-record spin on the declaration floated by American and British official to be unconvincing. While these spin doctors claimed Russia somehow checkmated itself by signing on to a joint declaration that supposedly calls for an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure, Russia’s Lavrov was giddily going on the record to boast that Russia was able to “prevent the West’s attempts to ‘Ukrainize’ the summit agenda.”
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left, and U.S. President Joe Biden, right, shake hands next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, September 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evelyn Hockstein)
U.S. and U.K. spin doctors told reporters off the record that Russia checkmated itself somehow by signing a joint declaration that called for an end to certain military tactics the Russians have been using against Ukraine.
“By achieving consensus in New Delhi, the G20 has forced Putin to commit to a cessation of attacks on infrastructure, to the withdrawal of troops and to the return of territory,” an unnamed British official told the Guardian.
“By removing the word ‘Russia,’ and the word ‘aggression,’ they gave Mr. Putin a face-saving gesture, and will now wait and see if he then reciprocates by doing what all G20 members except him agreed to — and that’s getting out of all of Ukraine,” a very optimistic Professor John Kirton of the University of Toronto told Voice of America News (VOA).
Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 30, 2023. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
“The option we have is text or no text, and I think it is better [to have a] text. At least if they [the Russians] don’t implement, we know once more that we cannot rely on them,” an unnamed senior European Union diplomat mumbled to the Associated Press (AP), as if the world is waiting breathlessly for one more piece of evidence that Moscow does not respect international law.
The hard truth is that India’s diplomats overrode the Biden administration’s desires to engineer a massive walkback from the 2022 Bali declaration, and the Biden team let them do it, because the White House prizes good relations with India – and might secretly be grateful to India for de-emphasizing the Ukraine crisis as Biden enters an election year. The New Delhi G20 statement is simply impossible to reconcile with Biden’s boasts of lining up a worldwide partnership to isolate and financially cripple Russia, or Biden’s demands that American taxpayers must send unlimited funds to protect Kyiv against an aggressor the G20 is no longer willing to call out by name.