G20 Summit: Modi urges foreign ministers to not let difficult issues block others

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hinted that discussions around the Russia-Ukraine war should not derail the rest of the agenda of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

"As foreign ministers, it is but natural that your discussions are affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day," Modi said in a video message on March 2 in an address to the G20 foreign ministers.

"We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved... We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can," he said.

Modi's address comes after Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra expressed confidence on March 1 that the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers would see issues other than the Russia-Ukraine war getting their due focus.

The meeting of the G20 foreign ministers comes days after the first meeting of the bloc's finance ministers and central bank governors under India's presidency took place in Bengaluru last week and ended without the adoption of an official statement.

Instead, India issued a Chair's Summary and Outcome Document after Russia and China opposed the inclusion of two paragraphs — the third and the fourth — that spoke of the war.

According to Russia and China, the mandate of the finance ministers and central bank governors was to deal with economic and financial issues.

While the Russia-Ukraine is likely to dominate discussions, India is also hoping to focus on issue, including food and energy security, new and emerging threats, humanitarian assistance, disaster risk reduction, and multilateralism.

In his speech on March 2, Modi also said it had to acknowledged that multilateralism is in crisis today.

Modi said the after the World War II global governance architecture - created to prevent future wars and to foster international cooperation on issues of common interests - had failed.

"The experience of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemic, terrorism, and wars – clearly shows that global governance has failed in both its mandates," Modi asserted. "I am sure that today’s meeting will be ambitious, inclusive, action-oriented, and will rise above differences."

India is expected to address the media at 4:30pm on the discussions held between the foreign ministers.