The Russian Foreign Minister represented his country at the G20 in the absence of President Putin.
New Delhi:
The G20 summit in Delhi was a milestone and did not allow the war in Ukraine to take over the agenda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today at a media briefing after the conclusion of the weekend summit. Calling the event a success, Mr Lavrov said that as President of the G20, India consolidated the position of the Global South for the first time.
“We managed to prevent the West’s attempts to ‘Ukrainize’ the agenda of the summit,” Lavrov said at the end of the two-day meeting of leaders. “The text does not mention Russia at all,” the veteran Russian diplomat added.
It was a breakthrough summit as it provides us with a path forward to make progress in many important areas, he further said, while expressing gratitude to India for “preventing attempts to politicize the G20”.
The G20 summit under India’s presidency will guide fairness in global governance and finance, the Russian Foreign Minister said, adding that the West “will not be able to remain a hegemon” as we create new centers of power in to see the world.
“The Indian presidency has really succeeded in bringing together G20 members from the Global South,” he added, suggesting that Russian allies such as Brazil, South Africa, India and China had made their voices heard.
On the challenges posed by climate change, the Russian Foreign Minister said Western powers have not fulfilled their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to tackle climate change.
Mr Lavrov said he appreciated India’s role at the summit, and stressed that member states should not promote personal interests at the forum.
“Everything was reflected in a balanced form… All members of the G20 agreed to act as one in the interests of peace, security and conflict resolution around the world,” he said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denounced the G20 statement as “nothing to be proud of”, but a top White House official said Washington was happy with the outcome, AFP news agency reported.
G20 leaders on Saturday referred to the problems caused by the war in their consensus document, the Delhi Declaration, but avoided blaming Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin avoided the summit.
