Summit without a consensus statement would have been a death sentence for the G20

At a press conference, Ackermann said the Delhi Declaration was a “fantastic text” and that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was “very satisfied” with the results of the recently concluded summit.

However, many in the Western world have taken a different position. It has been argued that the text of New Delhi’s G20 statement represented a significant concession to Russia, as the text did not directly condemn the country for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, the Bali Declaration, issued under the Indonesian G20 presidency, stated that “most members” condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also expressed dissatisfaction with the Delhi Declaration, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov thanked India and emerging economies for preventing attempts to ‘Ukrainize’ the G20 agenda. Ackermann opposed the idea that the Delhi Declaration represented a victory for Russia.

“Russia is certainly not mentioned as a country, but I would say Russia is everywhere,” Ackermann said, pointing to three paragraphs in the Delhi Declaration that he said refer directly to Russia.

Ackermann acknowledged that the statement would have looked different if it had been written by Western countries. He also said the language on climate change was “satisfactory,” even if not everything one had hoped for.

“But when you see that you have to make compromises in this very heterogeneous group of countries, it is a fantastic text,” he said of the statement.

Ackermann also said that the negotiations confirmed Russia’s isolation, as the negotiating dynamic, in his words, consisted of eighteen countries versus two countries: Russia and China.

Updated: Sep 12, 2023 6:55 PM IST