São Paulo, Mar. 1, (dpa/GNA) – The finance ministers of the leading industrialized and emerging economies (G20) failed to agree on a joint final declaration at their meeting in São Paulo due to disagreements over the war in Ukraine.
Instead, Brazil, which holds the presidency, published its own summary, dpa’s correspondent learned from negotiating circles on Thursday.
In this summary, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are only mentioned in a footnote. The ministers addressed ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises and emphasized Ukraine and Gaza in particular, the footnote says.
However, Brazil, as the host of the G20 meeting, said it does not consider a meeting of finance ministers to be the right forum to clarify such geopolitical issues.
According to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, a joint declaration failed because “we were unable to agree on a common language to assess the consequences of the war in Ukraine on the global economy.”
There had also been an attempt to equate the Russian attack on Ukraine with the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Lindner said. Germany was unable to support this.
Lindner had previously emphasized that Germany could not agree to a final declaration that did not mention the geopolitical conflicts.
“None of this can leave us cold, it must also be discussed here. We have opposed abandoning these issues,” he said.
Normally, joint assessments and goals are set out in a communiqué after a G20 meeting. Since the war in Ukraine, however, talks have repeatedly stalled because Russia is also a member of the group.
The G20 finance ministers were also unable to agree on a common formulation at their summit in India last year.
GNA