G20: India makes headway on agenda amid easing Russia-Ukraine acrimony

G20 meet in Gandhinagar, Gujarat

The first day of the third meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors has seen constructive discussions take place on issues of key importance, with the "acrimony" over Russia's invasion of Ukraine having simmered down from the first meeting held in Bengaluru in February, according to persons aware of the closed-door discussions held on July 17.

"The level of acrimony around Russia-Ukraine at least in terms of tone and expression is much cooler (from the first meeting). It has come down," said a source on July 17 on the condition of anonymity.

The first meeting of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, held in Bengaluru in February, had seen several G20 members loudly voice their concerns over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how it should be characterised in the official statement, forcing India to release a Chair's Summary instead of a joint communique. Specifically, Russia and China disagreed with two paragraphs of the Chair’s Summary which were the only sections to mention the word 'war'.

Also read: G20: Official statement's language takes centre-stage as US, G7 hit out at Russia

Despite the G20 members being unable to agree on an official statement at the conclusion of the Bengaluru meeting, Indian officials insisted it was not an indication of failure as the Chair's Summary was as good as a communique.

"It's practically a communique, 95 percent plus," a senior official had told Moneycontrol back in February.

Another source aware of the ongoing discussions in Gandhinagar rejected suggestions that disagreements over the Russia-Ukraine conflict could derail India's agenda, saying "a lot of good work is going on" and that "everybody is on board".

"The language and the optics is not influencing the debates and discussions on the various issues. So our issues are moving forward. Ukraine is not part of it," the source added.

The meeting in Gandhinagar, which began today on July 17 and will see Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das take the lead in the G20 Presidency media briefing on the evening of July 18, saw discussions on the global economic outlook, economic risks, and key policy responses to support the recovery, with a focus on finalising deliverables under the G20 Framework for Growth and G20 joint finance health agenda. Other discussion points included sustainable finance and infrastructure, with a particular focus on urban infrastructure.

A roundtable discussion on crypto assets was also held on July 17 with the aim of exchanging views on policies that supplement regulatory actions and provide "clear, coordinated, and coherent guidelines to the industry with the intent to encourage beneficial growth, which is necessary because of the widespread impact of #CryptoAssets", the finance ministry said in a tweet.

On July 18, one of the key issues that will be discussed is international taxation. The first volume of the report on reforming multilateral development banks by the expert group led by Larry Summers and NK Singh will also be discussed on July 18.

"The negotiations are going on. Until the final full-stop is in place, it is all open. But things are going quite alright," the first source said.