The Group of 20 isn’t the right place to seek diplomatic progress on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said after Kyiv voiced frustration at the summit’s final communique this weekend.
(Bloomberg) — The Group of 20 isn’t the right place to seek diplomatic progress on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said after Kyiv voiced frustration at the summit’s final communique this weekend.
Ukraine saw the G-20’s compromise on language describing the war as weaker than what leaders produced just 10 months ago at their summit in Bali, Indonesia. But Macron rejected the idea it was a boost for Moscow.
G-20 Hails Compromise on War Wording That Angers Ukraine
“I don’t feel this is a major diplomatic win or anything else other than isolation for Russia,” Macron told reporters at the end of the summit in New Delhi. “The G-20 is not the place where you’ll have diplomatic progress on that topic.”
He pointed to the origins of the G-20, which was created as a forum to mainly discuss economic and financial issues following the 2008 global crisis.
“The G-20 is not a forum for political discussion,” he said.
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The communique was “nothing to be proud of,” Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman at Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday. The phrasing of the document was hammered out in eleventh-hour negotiations and largely repeated the references used in last year’s text. But efforts by the US and its allies to retain a direct reference to Russia’s invasion ran into opposition from Moscow — and for a time — China.
US and European diplomats said the compromise remained tough on Moscow, highlighting the importance of the broad support for key points.
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