G20 Consensus Is Notably Weak Even as Some Members ‘Strongly Condemn the War’

The leaders of the world’s 20 top economies wound up their meetings Wednesday in a flurry of double-talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that appeared to be a tribute to the diplomatic skills of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.Gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali, the global potentates finally came out with a consensus view after hours of wrangling that basically said, “War is bad.” Or, in diplomatic verbiage befitting their lofty positions, the view was that “the majority of members strongly condemn the war.” The closest they came to anything sure to upset President Putin, who pointedly had skipped the G20 gathering, was to “demand Russia’s full and unconditional withdrawal” from Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov had already gone home. It was not clear whether this was due to the unspecified illness that had him visiting a hospital briefly Monday at the outset of the summit, or just because he didn’t want to seem to share in the consensus. He had left the final trimmings to aides, who were in on what Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, host of the summit, said was the real sticking point. Finally, Mr. Widodo said, the consensus was indisputably that “war has negative impact to the global economy” and “recovery will also not be achieved without any peace.”The leaders settled for a statement saying, “Most members” — clearly not all — “strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”Evidence that not everyone was buying into that assessment was the acknowledgement of “other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.”The consensus may not have been exactly the strong declaration that the Americans might have wanted, but President Biden was distracted in the final hours of the conference by news of the stray missile that killed two people in Poland. He promptly sat down with the G7 — a group of American friends within the G20 that includes leaders of the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain — to talk about what Mr. Biden soon came to realize was not a Russian attack but apparently a mistake by Ukrainian gunners.A statement by the G7, perhaps compensating for the weakness of the G20 consensus, opened with condemnation of “the barbaric missile attacks that Russia perpetrated on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on Tuesday.”The G20 consensus appeared almost apologetic for having to mention Ukraine at all. The statement said theirs was “not the forum for resolving security issues,” while acknowledging the war’s “significant consequences for the global economy.” Piously, it noted it was “essential to respect international law and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and security.”China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, after meeting with Mr. Lavrov, made clear that President Xi, having already had a long conversation with Mr. Biden on the sidelines, was not going to sign on to criticism of Moscow. China’s Xinhua news quoted him as saying that “China noticed that Russia has recently reaffirmed the established position that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’” — exactly as Messrs. Xi and Biden had agreed.It was proof, Mr. Wang added, of “Russia’s rational and responsible attitude.”

G20 Consensus Is Notably Weak Even as Some Members ‘Strongly Condemn the War’

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