A draft for the joint final declaration of the participating states, presented on Tuesday, stated that the “war in Ukraine” had “negatively affected the world economy” and that the threat of the use of nuclear weapons was “inadmissible”. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) rejected a “dictated peace from Russia’s perspective” as unacceptable.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was not to G20summit in Indonesia, where he was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov left early on Tuesday – according to media reports, he had previously been examined twice in hospital for an undiagnosed illness, which he denied in a video.
The draft for the final declaration speaks of a “war” in Ukraine, which Moscow fundamentally rejects and criminalizes in its own country. Apparently at Lavrov’s urging, the wording was incorporated into the draft that there were “differing views and different assessments” of the Ukraine conflict.
The draft final declaration has to be approved by the heads of state and government, which was scheduled for Wednesday at the conclusion of the Bali summit.
Before his departure on Tuesday, Lavrov said that “all the problems” with regard to any peace negotiations were “on the Ukrainian side”. They reject “negotiations categorically” and set “obviously unrealistic conditions”.
Moscow now wants to see “concrete evidence that the West is seriously interested” in disciplining Ukrainian President Volodymyr “Zelenskyy and explaining to him that this cannot go on, that this is not in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” he said Lavrov. The Ukrainian President has rejected peace talks with Moscow as long as Putin is in power.
Chancellor Scholz said at a press conference in Bali that the basis for peace negotiations must be that “Russia ends its war of aggression and withdraws its troops.” At the same time, the chancellor emphasized the importance of “constant talks” with both Zelenskyy and Putin. However, the prerequisite for their success is the “moment when Russia sees and accepts that it has to get out of this situation now”.
The G20The German chancellor rated the summit as a success “despite the depressing general conditions”. With an agreement on a final declaration, the G20summit mark an “important breakpoint” for the near future, said Scholz. In order to prevent the war from escalating, it was important to make this statement in bilateral talks with Russia’s ally China.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said in a video message that “now is the time” to stop the “destructive Russian war”. This will “save thousands of lives”.
He also called for an extension of the grain agreement. The agreement negotiated with the mediation of the UN and Turkey on the safe export of Ukrainian grain through a protective corridor in the Black Sea expires on Saturday.
At the start of the summit, Indonesian President Joko Widodo called for joint efforts to end the Ukraine war and warned of a “new Cold War”.
Source: Nachrichten
