G-20 fails on unity over Ukraine, war’s impact
Cold exchanges amid growing East-west split
NUSA DUA, Indonesia – Deeply divided top diplomats from the world’s richest and largest developing nations failed to find common ground Friday over Russia’s war in Ukraine and how to deal with its global impacts, leaving prospects for future cooperation in the forum uncertain.
At talks that were knocked off balance by two unrelated and unexpected political developments, including the shocking assassination of a former Japanese prime minister, far from the Indonesian resort of Bali where they were meeting, Group of 20 foreign ministers heard an emotional plea for unity and an end to the war from their Indonesian host.
Yet, consensus remained elusive amid deepening East-west splits driven by China and Russia on one side and the United States and Europe on the other. There was no group photo taken nor a final communique issued as has been done in previous years, and acrimony appeared pervasive, especially between Russia and Western participants.
Although they were present in the same room at the same time for the first time since the Ukraine war began, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointedly ignored each other.
Lavrov walked out of the proceedings at least twice: once when his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock spoke at the opening session and again just before Ukrainian Foreign
Minister Dmytro Kuleba was to speak by video at the second session, according to a Western diplomat present.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had urged the group – which included Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Blinken and several European counterparts – to overcome mistrust for the sake of a planet confronting multiple challenges from the coronavirus to climate change as well as Ukraine.
“The world has yet to recover from the pandemic but we are already confronted with another crisis: the war in Ukraine,” Marsudi said. “The ripple effects are being felt globally on food, on energy and physical space.”
She noted that poor and developing countries now face the brunt of fuel and grain shortages resulting from the war in Ukraine and said that the G-20 has a responsibility to step up and deal with the matter to ensure the rules-based
global order remains relevant.
The Ukraine war has shaken that order, she said, as Lavrov appeared to shuffle papers without expression at his seat in between the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
“Honestly, we cannot deny that it has become more difficult for the world to sit together,” Marsudi said. She added plaintively: “The world is watching us, so we cannot fail.”
She said the Ukraine war was discussed at almost all bilateral meetings during the one-day gathering.
But after the meeting was over, Marsudi could not point to any agreements reached by all participants, although she said there had been broad concern about food and energy disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine.
Indeed, although they sat around the same large conference table, neither Lavrov nor Blinken spoke to each other.