“Convergence On All Issues Except…”: India After G20 Sherpas’ Meet

New Delhi:

India on Thursday said there has been a high degree of convergence among the G20 nations on all key developmental issues but differences persist on the Ukraine conflict.

The comments by External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi came days after the G20 Sherpas held extensive deliberations on the draft leaders’ declaration at a three-day meeting in Karnataka’s Hampi.

The aim of the third Sherpas’ meeting under India’s G20 presidency was to give shape to the leaders’ declaration to be adopted at the New Delhi summit of the grouping in September.

There have been sharp differences among the Russia-China combine and the Western countries over the text to describe the Ukraine crisis.

At a media briefing, Mr Bagchi said the Sherpa meeting was “very constructive”.

He said there have been differences on paras relating to the conflict in Ukraine but largely there is a “high degree of convergence” among the participants on all other issues and that is a “very positive thing”.

“I would not like to comment on what could be the contours of the final declaration because that is up to the leaders to finally decide,” he said.

“We live with optimism and we will work hard with our partners to see what can come out at the New Delhi summit,” Mr Bagchi said.

In the text of the draft communique, two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict were taken from the G20 ‘leaders’ Bali declaration that was unveiled in November.

Both Russia and China had agreed to the two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict in the Bali declaration, but they backtracked from it this year creating difficulties for India to build consensus on the tricky issue.

To a separate question on the omission of certain lines from the final version of a joint document released following talks between top leaders of India and France in Paris on July 14, Mr Bagchi said an incorrect document was uploaded by error for a few minutes.

A draft version of the ‘Horizon 2047’ document issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) late on the night of July 14 referred to an agreement for the procurement of three Scorpene submarines.

However, that portion didn’t figure in an updated version.

“Speculation on that is unwarranted. There is a joint document titled Horizon 2047. The text of that was uploaded by both sides nearly simultaneously… That is an agreed text and there was no question of revising it,” Mr Bagchi said.

“This is mirrored on the French side. It’s there on our website,” he added.