NEW DELHI: G20 leaders on Saturday adopted the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration through consensus, PM Narendra Modi announced.
“We just received good news. Due to the hard work of our teams and due to your cooperation, there is consensus on the G20 Leaders summit declaration,” Modi announced at the second session of the summit amid clapping from the members.
After over 150 hours of intense negotiations, negotiators from G20 countries finalized the language on the Ukraine conflict.
“There is 100% consensus on the full text of the communique, including on (the) Russia-Ukraine (issue). There is an agreement on all issues. It is based on a new text and a New Delhi language on Ukraine,” a source familiar with the closed-door negotiations told TOI before the official announcement.
The deal was hammered after tough negotiations, reflecting the wide divergence between the G7 nations and Russia and China. “It’s a historic deal. All 20 members have agreed,” another source said.
This marks a major victory for India, which has been seeking a focus on development issues at the G20 instead of geopolitical issues dominating the agenda. In fact, the communique will have a strong language on the economic situation and the need to watch the developments closely due to a sharp slowdown in economic activity in Europe as well as China.
Over the last few days, however, negotiators have focused on sorting out the differences over Ukraine. The West wanted the text to make a strong condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, something that was being resisted by the other side.
An understanding on the issue would pave the way for a joint communique to be issued at the end of the leaders’ summit and this would emerge as a major victory for India’s presidency.
Sources said that sherpa level talks went on through the day on Friday but it was only towards early Saturday morning that some sort of a breakthrough was achieved. Sherpas are envoys of leaders and the draft worked out by them will need to be accepted by the leaders.
India had played a key role in resolving the impasse at last year’s G20 Summit in Bali where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “this is not an era of war” helped stitch together a declaration.
But the issue raised its head again during India’s presidency with ministerial meetings ending without a communique, reflecting the unanimity over all the issues. Instead, the outcome document and joint statements had a footnote noting Russia and China’s dissent over the reference to the war.
Most of the issues that are on the G20 agenda had been settled a few days ago after softening of stance by the Chinese side, which had been a key stumbling block.
“We just received good news. Due to the hard work of our teams and due to your cooperation, there is consensus on the G20 Leaders summit declaration,” Modi announced at the second session of the summit amid clapping from the members.
After over 150 hours of intense negotiations, negotiators from G20 countries finalized the language on the Ukraine conflict.
“There is 100% consensus on the full text of the communique, including on (the) Russia-Ukraine (issue). There is an agreement on all issues. It is based on a new text and a New Delhi language on Ukraine,” a source familiar with the closed-door negotiations told TOI before the official announcement.
The deal was hammered after tough negotiations, reflecting the wide divergence between the G7 nations and Russia and China. “It’s a historic deal. All 20 members have agreed,” another source said.
This marks a major victory for India, which has been seeking a focus on development issues at the G20 instead of geopolitical issues dominating the agenda. In fact, the communique will have a strong language on the economic situation and the need to watch the developments closely due to a sharp slowdown in economic activity in Europe as well as China.
Over the last few days, however, negotiators have focused on sorting out the differences over Ukraine. The West wanted the text to make a strong condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, something that was being resisted by the other side.
An understanding on the issue would pave the way for a joint communique to be issued at the end of the leaders’ summit and this would emerge as a major victory for India’s presidency.
Sources said that sherpa level talks went on through the day on Friday but it was only towards early Saturday morning that some sort of a breakthrough was achieved. Sherpas are envoys of leaders and the draft worked out by them will need to be accepted by the leaders.
India had played a key role in resolving the impasse at last year’s G20 Summit in Bali where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “this is not an era of war” helped stitch together a declaration.
But the issue raised its head again during India’s presidency with ministerial meetings ending without a communique, reflecting the unanimity over all the issues. Instead, the outcome document and joint statements had a footnote noting Russia and China’s dissent over the reference to the war.
Most of the issues that are on the G20 agenda had been settled a few days ago after softening of stance by the Chinese side, which had been a key stumbling block.