Even as Ukraine seeks India’s backing in a draft resolution against Russia at the upcoming UN General Assembly meet, New Delhi has been taking great efforts to avoid discussion on additional sanctions against Moscow at the G20 bloc’s finance chiefs gathering scheduled to take place on Thursday in India’s southern Bengaluru city.
According to Reuters news agency, which has quoted Indian government sources, India was not keen on discussing the issue even though US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that they will “join with allies in holding Russia accountable” for the war during G20 meetings in India.
“India is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20. The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world,” one of the unnamed Indian officials was quoted as saying.
Apart from that, confusion prevailed at the meeting convened on Wednesday to decide on the draft of the G20 communique witnessed.
Despite India’s best efforts to form a consensus on the words by calling it a “crisis” or a “challenge” instead of a “war”, discussions remained inconclusive, delegates of at least seven countries present in the meetings told Reuters.
‘Not an era of war’ says India at G20 finance meet
These discussions have been postponed to Thursday, when Yellen will be part of the meetings.
Earlier in the day, India’s information minister Anurag Thakur told a news conference after welcoming delegates, “Today’s era is not for war. Democracy, dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has sought India’s support for a proposed resolution tabled at the UN General Assembly on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, asserting that New Delhi’s cooperation was very important.
According to a Ukrainian statement, the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office Andriy Yermak called India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval informing him about the current situation, especially about the “extremely difficult defence” of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region
(With inputs from agencies)
