G-7 countries were able to “save” the G-20 from an early demise by agreeing to the draft declaration, German Ambassador Phillip Ackerman said on September 12, rejecting statements from several countries, including Ukraine, which suggested that Western countries, comprising the G-7 and the European Union, had totally “compromised” their stand on Russia and Ukraine.
On the contrary, Mr. Ackerman said, the German delegation had left Delhi “highly satisfied” with the outcome, and credited “skilful Indian negotiations”, as well as a joint proposal by Indonesia-India-Brazil-South Africa, that was presented to the rest of the G-20 as a fait accompli hours before the G-20 Leaders’ Summit began, with the breakthrough in talks.
As The Hindu had reported on Saturday, the joint proposal by the four consecutive hosts of the G-20, all belonging to “emerging economies”, contained the eight paragraphs that finally made it into the Summit declaration, word for word, without any changes. The paragraphs under the heading “For the Planet, People, Peace and Prosperity”, which was also used in the document, had erased language from the Bali G-20 declaration that directly criticised Russia for the war in Ukraine, although it retained the word “war” and the strong language against “nuclear threats” that was in the Bali statement, which Russia had opposed.
