These days, the summit of the leaders of the G20 group ended in the Indian city of Naí Dillí. Participants agreed to adopt a joint statement. Before its adoption, there were doubts that the group would reach an agreement, as there are disagreements between them, especially in relation to the different positions on the war in Ukraine.
The declaration of conflict agreed upon by the participants is ultimately mild and limited to a call not to seize foreign territories by force and not to use nuclear weapons. According to it, the members of the G20 group called on all states to act in accordance with the principles set forth in the UN Charter. From this perspective, the adoption of the declaration is a certain success, as Russia and China had previously objected to the language referring to the war in Ukraine. Unlike last year’s statement from the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, the current document does not directly mention the Russian invasion.
The compromise formulation regarding Ukraine has become the subject of criticism from the Ukrainian side. Oleh Nikolenko, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated on Facebook that Ukraine was grateful to the partners who tried to include a strong condemnation of Russian aggression in the text of the declaration, but the G20 group of countries should not be proud of the resulting document.
India, which strove at the summit to focus on addressing the needs of the developing world, including food security and climate change, sees the adoption of the compromise joint statement as a diplomatic success.
Let us therefore consider the question of what success the G20 achieved by adopting a mildly worded statement on Ukraine. Perhaps unprecedentedly, Western countries backed away from the requirement to clearly name the aggressor. Although, we do not currently know why they did so, I believe that one other, seemingly unrelated, moment must be taken into account. It is the recent expansion of the BRICS group by six countries, which was originally created more than twenty years ago as a counterweight to the G7 group of the world’s most developed countries, but can currently gain more weight in global issues. And another 40 countries, including those from Africa, are waiting for BRICS membership. It is not without interest that in recent years, Russia and China have been turning more and more of their attention to African countries, where the anti-colonial narrative is growing stronger. And the African Union is also currently becoming a member of the G20 group.
From the point of view of economic strength, it must be added that the BRICS countries will account for 32% of global GDP in 2023, while the G7 group will account for only 30%. This is remarkable growth, although China and India are largely responsible for it.
Therefore, let us believe that the movement in international global groupings and their overlap could lead to greater synergy even in fundamental international political issues and perhaps also to the easing of tensions in international relations.
