India has revealed that the G20 nations were unable to issue a joint statement after their meeting because China and Russia objected to the inclusion of a passage condemning Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 nations wrapped up their meeting in the southern city of Bengaluru on Saturday, after they failed to reach a consensus.
India chaired the meeting. The country's Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, spoke to reporters after the meeting. She said opposition from China and Russia prevented the nations from issuing a joint statement.
She revealed that China and Russia opposed the inclusion of a statement, which said that most of the members strongly condemn the war in Ukraine. They also rejected the inclusion of a line, which stressed that the situation in Ukraine is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.
Those passages were included in a declaration that was unanimously adopted at the G20 summit in Indonesia last year. China and Russia approved that declaration.
Sitharaman noted that Russia and China explained that they had no problem with the passages then, but that they cannot accept them now.