Delhi Declaration: Ukraine says nothing for G20 to take pride in, Russia claims victory

Lula takes over presidency from Modi, says geopolitical issues should not overshadow G20 agenda

Though Moscow on Sunday boasted about its diplomatic win in New Delhi, Kyiv conveyed its disappointment after the G20 leaders adopted a declaration that refrained from condemning Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi ceremonially handed over the G20 presidential gavel to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the end of bloc’s 18th summit in New Delhi, the leader of the South American nation said that the premier forum for international economic cooperation could not let geopolitical issues overshadow its agenda.

“No one is interested in a divided G20”, he said, tacitly suggesting that the bloc should not allow itself to be polarised by the geopolitical tension triggered by Russia-Ukraine conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron also said that the G20 was not necessarily the forum to expect progress on Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Delhi Declaration has nothing for the G20 to take pride in, said Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian Government. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on the other hand, not only hailed the conclave of the G20 leaders in New Delhi as a “breakthrough summit”, but also lauded India for preventing ‘Anglo-Saxon’ attempts to politicise the agenda of the bloc.

The G20 leaders adopted the ‘New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration’ on the first day of the 18th summit of the intergovernmental forum in the national capital of India. The Delhi Declaration, unlike the Bali Declaration adopted at the end of the 17th G20 summit hosted by Indonesia in November 2022, refrained from deploring Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The ‘Bali Declaration’ had demanded “complete and unconditional withdrawal” of Russia’s armed forces from the territory of Ukraine. The ‘Delhi Declaration’, however, made no such demand on behalf of the G20.

“(The) G20 adopted a final declaration. We are grateful to the partners who tried to include strong wording in the text. However, in terms of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, G20 has nothing to be proud of,” Nikolenko, the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Government, wrote on X. He also posted a screenshot of a ‘closer to reality’ version of the Delhi Declaration’s paragraphs on geopolitical issues, with changes marked in red letters to reflect Kyiv’s view on Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

“We were able to prevent the West's attempts to ‘Ukrainize’ the summit agenda,” said Lavrov, who stood in for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the conclave of the G20 leaders in New Delhi. “It was a breakthrough summit as it provides us a way forward to move ahead in many key areas,” said the foreign minister of Russia.

Macron, however, said that the G20 New Delhi summit’s outcome document should not be seen as a diplomatic victory of Moscow.

“This G20 confirms once again the isolation of Russia. Today, an overwhelming majority of G20 members condemn the war in Ukraine and its impact," Macron told journalists after the summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi came to its end.