The leaders of the main G20 economies have issued a statement saying they “deplore in the strongest terms” Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Key points:
- The statement said most members stressed that the war in Ukraine is causing “immense human suffering”
- The summit was interrupted by an emergency meeting to discuss reports of a missile landing on Polish territory
- G20 members also reaffirmed their commitment to avoid excessive exchange rate volatility
The statement said “the majority of members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”
It was approved by all members of the G20 bloc, three diplomatic sources told Reuters.
A German delegate said it was adopted unchanged from a draft released on Tuesday.
The statement said there are “other opinions and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions.”
He said that international law must be respected, that the threat of using nuclear weapons was inadmissible, and welcomed the Black Sea grain initiative.
The statement also said member central banks will continue to appropriately calibrate the pace of monetary policy tightening.
Members reaffirmed their commitment to avoid excessive exchange rate volatility while acknowledging that “many currencies have moved significantly” this year.
Earlier, the day’s schedule at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali was interrupted by an emergency meeting to discuss reports of a missile landing on Polish territory near Ukraine, killing two people.
President Joe Biden said after the meeting that the United States and its NATO allies were investigating the blast, but early reports suggested it may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia.
NATO member Poland said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador for an explanation, although Russia denied it was responsible.
The leaders of the G7 nations, who were all in Bali for the G20 summit, attended the discussion.
The G7 nations include the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Great Britain and Japan.
After the meeting, G20 leaders, dressed in white T-shirts and some wearing baseball caps with the G20 logo, took part in a ceremony to plant mangrove saplings to signal the battle against climate change.
G20 leaders participated in a ceremony to plant mangrove saplings. (Reuters: Dita Alangkara/Pool)
On the sidelines of the summit, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held a two-hour meeting with Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang, her first face-to-face conversation with a senior Chinese economic official.
Before the meeting, he had said he hoped to gain new insight into China’s political plans and work towards greater economic engagement between the two countries.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit that several major economies faced a real risk of going into recession as the war in Ukraine, rising food and fuel costs and rising inflation will cloud the global outlook.
G20 members reaffirm their commitment to avoid excessive exchange rate volatility
The Western-led push to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated the summit.
Many participants said President Vladimir Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine had battered the global economy and revived Cold War-era geopolitical divisions just as the world was emerging from the worst of the COVID pandemic -19.
Russia, whose forces struck Ukrainian cities and energy facilities on Tuesday as the G20 met, said the “politicization” of the summit was unfair.
Sergei Lavrov replaced Vladimir Putin. (Reuters: Mast Irham/Pool)
“Yes, there is a war going on in Ukraine, a hybrid war that the West has unleashed and has been preparing for years,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, echoing Putin’s line that the NATO expansion had threatened Russia.
Lavrov represented Putin at the summit, but left on Tuesday evening. Russia was later represented by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
The West has accused Russia of making irresponsible statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons since its invasion of Ukraine. In turn, Russia has accused the West of “provocative” nuclear rhetoric.
The 19 G20 countries together with the European Union account for more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product, 75% of international trade and 60% of its population.
Host Indonesia has called for unity and focus on problems such as inflation, hunger and high energy prices, all exacerbated by the war.
The summit statement also said G20 central banks would calibrate monetary tightening with an eye on the problem of global inflation, while also taking into account the need to limit “spillovers between countries”.
G20 members also reaffirmed their commitment to avoid excessive exchange rate volatility, while acknowledging that “many currencies have moved significantly” this year.
On debt, he expressed concern about the “deteriorating” situation of some middle-income countries and stressed the importance of all creditors sharing a fair burden.
Reuters