Source: AFP
The first meeting of G20 finance ministers of the year ended Thursday without a joint statement because of deep divisions over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, officials said.
Host country Brazil has an ambitious agenda to use the rotating G20 presidency to amplify the voice of the global South and tackle inequality and climate change.
But that was overshadowed by what he called a “deadlock” at the two-day meeting in Sao Paulo.
“It is not possible (to reach) a final statement,” Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told a news conference.
“The impasse, as usual, is about the ongoing conflicts,” he said, without specifically mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine or Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We had nurtured the hope that more sensitive geopolitical issues could be discussed exclusively” by the group’s foreign ministers, who met in Rio de Janeiro last week, which also failed to produce a joint statement.
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Haddad said that on financial issues, the G20 group — which accounts for 80 percent of the global economy — was united.
“But since the meeting last week in Rio de Janeiro did not result in a joint statement, that ended up tainting consensus building” in what Brazil had hoped would be a purely economic policy meeting, he said.
No “business as usual”
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said earlier that his country planned to stick to any final statement to deal with Russia’s two-year war in Ukraine.
The war has divided the G20, with Western countries condemning the invasion and pouring military and financial aid into Ukraine.
Russia — also a member of the G20 — has meanwhile received support from other emerging powers such as Brazil, China and India.
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The group is also divided over Gaza, with the United States and Western allies reluctant to condemn Israel, even as non-Western members grow increasingly critical of a spiraling humanitarian crisis there.
“We cannot do business as usual at the G20 when there is war in Ukraine, terrorism by Hamas and the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” Lindner told reporters.
“We are opposed to avoiding these issues. Even if we are central bankers and finance ministers, we represent the values of our countries and must defend the rules-based international order.”
The meetings are intended to lay the groundwork for the annual summit of G20 leaders, to be held in Rio in November.
Despite a push from Western countries for the group to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the last G20 summit, held in New Delhi in September, ended with a watered-down statement that denounced the use of force but did not specifically name Russia .
The divisions do not appear to have subsided.
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“Obviously, we want to name Russia as the aggressor and Ukraine as the victim,” a French official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Taxing the super rich
On the global economy, the group expressed cautious optimism for a “soft landing” from the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, in an unsigned “Presidency Summary” released by Brazil instead of a joint statement.
But “uncertainty remains high,” he warned.
“The global economy continues to face multiple and mutually reinforcing challenges whose solutions require renewed multilateral cooperation. These include conflicts in many regions of the world, geo-economic tensions, persistent inequalities, poverty, malnutrition and disease,” he reported. only reference to ongoing wars.
It also cited “increased vulnerable debts”, “tighter financing conditions” and “challenges imposed by climate change”.
“Global growth is projected to stabilize in 2024 and the following years at a subdued level,” it said.
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Brazil has sought to advance an international plan to ensure the world’s super-rich pay what Haddad called their “fair share” of taxes, urging G20 nations to adopt a joint stance to prevent billionaire tax evasion by July.
This topic also did not make it into the “Presidency Summary”.
But Haddad, a close ally of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said there was widespread support. “Nobody spoke against him,” he told reporters.
Source: AFP