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NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 16 (Reuters) – A two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 major economies is expected to end without an official announcement as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to divide the group, two sources familiar with the matter said with this question.
Instead, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is hosting this week’s meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, is expected to issue a chairman’s statement summarizing the meeting’s events, the sources said.
Senior Western officials, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, condemned the war on Friday and blasted Russian officials for the war’s huge economic toll.
“We don’t expect an announcement,” one source said.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation,” has overshadowed recent G20 meetings, including last week’s gathering of foreign ministers.
Sri Mulyani hoped that delegates could bridge their differences over the war to jointly address rising commodity prices, the escalating food security crisis and the spillover effects on the ability of low-income countries to repay debt.
But that has proved too difficult in the current climate, with Western countries imposing tough sanctions on Russia and accusing it of war crimes in Ukraine – which Moscow denies. Other G20 countries, including China, India and South Africa, were more muted in their response.
Western sources warned earlier this week that it would be difficult to agree on a statement because the body works by consensus and Russia blocked talk about the cause of the economic downturn that prompted the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to scale back their forecasts.
“The capacity of the G20 to act and communicate is severely hampered by the war in Ukraine for which one of the G20 members is fully responsible,” said a source from the French finance ministry. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris; Editing by Sandra Maler and William Mallard)
