Migmg news
Bengaluru, Feb 25 () A two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors ended on Saturday without a joint communiqué as differences prevailed among member states over how to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Instead of a joint communique, the G20 chairman’s summary and outcome document was released after the meeting culminated on Saturday.
The meeting began on February 24 in Bengaluru, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Countries such as the US and France sought to condemn Russia for the invasion, while India preferred to use neutral terminology such as “crisis” or “challenge” to describe the situation.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it was “absolutely necessary” that the communique contain a condemnation of Russia.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said there was no way the G20 would withdraw from the joint statement agreed at the last summit in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022, which stated that “most members strongly condemn the war in Ukraine”.
Russia, which is also a member of the G20 forum, described it as a “special military operation”.
Meanwhile, the meeting called on the international community “to step up its efforts to effectively combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing to improve the integrity and resilience of the international financial system.”
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s summary paper noted that the global economic outlook has improved modestly since the last meeting in October 2022.
“However, global growth remains sluggish and downside risks to the outlook persist, including rising inflation, a resurgence of the pandemic and tighter financing conditions that could exacerbate debt vulnerabilities in many emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
Sitharaman presided over the two-day meeting here.
“Since February 2022, we have also witnessed the war in Ukraine which further negatively affected the global economy. There was a discussion about this issue. We reiterated our national positions expressed in other forums,” the document said.
“There were other views and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions.” Recognizing that the G-20 is not a forum for addressing security issues, we recognize that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy,” the document said.
Several issues were discussed during the two-day meeting.
They ranged from debt relief for poorer countries, to digital currencies and payments, climate change and financial inclusion.
ans-pvn/pgh
(This story was not edited by Kashmir Monitor staff and was automatically generated from a syndicated feed)