Western moneymakers on Friday condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a G20 meeting in Indonesia and accused their economic leaders of creating a “shock wave” in the global economy.
The two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors is taking place on the Indonesian island of Bali, a week after foreign ministers sent a barrage of accusations about the Ukraine invasion to the chief diplomat. Russian, Sergei Lavrov.
This week’s meeting has unleashed a new confrontation between Westerners, who denounce Moscow’s responsibility for economic problems, and Russia, which blames Western sanctions for all the ills.
Complaint
“There was a very broad denunciation of the war and its consequences,” while “Russia tried to say that the world economic situation had nothing to do with the war,” a source within the French delegation told AFP.
But the war has been shown to have “derailed growth”, “exacerbated inflationary pressures and endangered food security”, according to this source.
“Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine has shocked the world economy, with rising prices for raw materials, food, fertilizer and energy” driving more people to go hungry, said US Treasury Secretary States, Janet Yellen, at a conference.
“It was Russia’s invasion that undermined food and energy security, not sanctions, and Russia must take full responsibility for that,” Australian Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Chalmers said, according to a statement in text seen by AFP.
Responsibility in war
Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has Ukrainian roots, accused the Russian delegation of being responsible for “war crimes” given its support for the invasion of Ukraine, according to a Canadian official.
“It is not just the generals who commit crimes, it is the technocrats of the economy who make the war possible and allow it to continue,” he said.
Janet Yellen also stressed that “Russian officials must acknowledge their role in the dire consequences of this war through their longstanding support for the Putin regime,” according to a US Treasury official.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Silouanov was not present but spoke via video link, as was his Ukrainian counterpart Sergiy Marchenko, who was also invited.
Russia was represented by Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maximov and Elizaveta Danilova, a Russian central bank official.
“The world is watching us”
Moscow has given up sending a high-level delegation “after very direct criticism” that its chief diplomat had to erase last week, a Western source told AFP.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Finance Minister of Indonesia, the host country, had urged G20 leaders to unite and act against the food and energy crises, the consequences of which could be “catastrophic”.
“The world is watching us”, “the price of not reaching an agreement is higher than what we can pay”, warned the minister. “The humanitarian consequences for many low-income countries would be catastrophic.”
Discussions were initially expected to focus on how best to encourage a return to growth after the coronavirus pandemic, but it is the impact of the war in Ukraine, with the food and energy crises, that now comes to the fore. on the agenda. priorities.
“Putin’s actions, including the destruction of agricultural infrastructure, theft of grain and farm equipment, and a de facto blockade of Black Sea ports, amount to using food as a weapon of war,” Janet Yellen lamented during the course. of a conference.
Janet Yellen had participated in a boycott of the G20 meeting in April when Russian officials spoke in Washington. And the meeting ended without a final statement.
Without a consensus among countries on the causes of the current economic problems, the publication of a press release is again unlikely, but the West has chosen this time to respond to Mosco.
many absent
Indonesia, the host country of the G20 this year, wanted to remain neutral and did not give in to Western pressure to keep Russia out of the meetings.
But the host country struggled to secure a full round of funding, with many officials absent.
The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, participated virtually in the event and “explained the ECB’s views on growth and inflation in the eurozone, which is more affected by the war in Ukraine than most other parts of the world,” according to a G20 source. .
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who warned on Wednesday of a “darkening” of the global economic outlook, attended in person, but World Bank President David Malpass was absent.
This meeting is a preparatory stage for the summit of heads of state of the G20 to be held in November in Bali.
Source: BFM TV
