Today’s era must not be of war: G20 declaration

Leaders’ declaration reveals that most, but not all, member-states condemned the Russian action in Ukraine, adding that there were different assessments of the situation and sanctions

Leaders of the G20 grouping on Wednesday said it was “essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system” as “today’s era must not be of war”.

In a joint declaration brought out at the end of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, the multilateral organisation said that the war in Ukraine is causing economic difficulties and insecurity worldwide and termed the threat of using nuclear weapons in the war as “inadmissible”. 

However, the leaders’ declaration also revealed that not all member states condemned the Russian action against Ukraine. “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy - constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food security and elevating financial stability risks,“ said the declaration. 

The statement was issued soon after U.S. President Joe Biden chaired an emergency meeting of the western bloc in Bali after a missile from the Ukrainian battlefield landed in Przewodow in eastern Poland near the Polish border with Ukraine. NATO countries called for an emergency meeting to determine who exactly fired the missile.

Following the summit, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that the “outcome document” was adopted through “consensus” among the G20 members and that India contributed “constructively” in the drafting of the text. “The consensus document going forward will be a positive development as we take over the presidency of the G20 on first of December,” he added. 

The joint statement’s reference to the phrase “today’s era must not be of war” indicates that the collective has incorporated the argument that Prime Minister Narendra Modi first mentioned in his discussion on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s September meeting at Samarkand in Uzbekistan. “I know that today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this,” Mr. Modi had told Russian President Vladimir Putin then. Subsequently, this argument was reiterated by French President Emmanuel Macron, and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his tour of India.