India PM Modi says G20 leaders’ declaration adopted

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The G20 has adopted a consensus declaration on issues facing the bloc, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday during a summit, signalling that negotiators had resolved deep differences over the wording on the war in Ukraine.

He gave no details on the compromise wording.

“On the back of the hard work of all the teams, we have received consensus on the G20 Leaders Summit Declaration. I announce the adoption of this declaration,” Modi told the G20 leaders in New Delhi.

Earlier Modi inaugurated the two-day meeting by calling on members to end a “global trust deficit” and announced that the bloc was granting permanent membership to the African Union in an effort to make it more representative.

“Today, as the president of G20, India calls upon the entire world to first convert this global trust deficit into one trust and one confidence,” he said. “It is time for all of us to move together.”

The group is deeply divided over the war in Ukraine, with Western nations pushing for strong condemnation of Russia in the Leaders’ Declaration, while others are demanding a focus on broader economic issues.

The wording could be similar to language in the declaration issued in Indonesia at the 2022 summit, which noted that while most nations condemned Russia for the invasion, there were also divergent views.

An earlier 38-page draft of the final statement reviewed by Reuters left the “geopolitical situation” paragraph blank, while there was agreement on 75 other paragraphs covering issues ranging from global debt and cryptocurrencies to climate change.

(Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar, Katya Golubkova, Krishn Kaushik and Mayank Bhardwaj; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Jacqueline Wong and Kim Coghill)