A two-day meeting of finance ministers and central banks of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations ended Saturday without a joint communique after Russia's war in Ukraine overshadowed proceedings.

Instead of sharing a joint statement, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who hosted the meeting, admitted  that disagreements over how to address Russia's invasion of Ukraine were "quite overwhelming."

"I think we are all agreed that this G20 meeting under a very challenging and difficult situation because of the geopolitical tension," she said.

She insisted some progress was made but added that efforts needed to continue to "maintain this G20 as a forum, a global economic cooperation forum." 

But the faultlines in the group were clear.

"The G20's capacity to act and communicate is very strongly hindered by the war in Ukraine, which one of the G20 members is fully responsible for," a French Finance Ministry source told the Reuters news agency before the meeting concluded.

"This is a challenging time because Russia is part of the G20 and doesn't agree with the rest of us on how to characterize the war," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

Russia disagrees with Western nations

At the start of the meeting, senior Western officials, including  Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, said Russia was to blame for the economic fallout caused by the war.

In bilateral meetings with senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, and Singapore, Yellen said it was Russia's "unprovoked war against Ukraine, which has caused global spillovers in food, energy, and other commodities."

She encouraged countries to back a price cap on Russian oil to restrict revenue flow to its military.

Ukraine's finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, addressed the G20 meeting virtually and called for "more severe targeted sanctions" against Russia.

Some G20 members, including most Western countries, have imposed sanctions on Russia — including the EU, which proposed a seventh package of sanctions on Friday. However, some member nations, including China, India, and South Africa, have been more muted in their responses.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov participated virtually in the meeting. The Kremlin blames Western sanctions for blocked food shipments and rising energy prices.

Showdown at the G20 summit

The meetings of finance ministers and foreign ministers last week set some of the groundwork for the G20 heads of state and government summit scheduled in November in Bali.

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to participate despite the objection of Western group members, including US President Joe Biden.

After a G7 meeting in Germany in June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said G7 leaders would attend the G20 summit in November regardless of Putin's presence as "we do not want to drive the G20 apart."

President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been invited, even though Ukraine is not a G20 country. He said he would attend if the security situation in his country allows it.

lo/sms (AFP, Reuters)