Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Economic leaders at the G20 economic summit in Bengaluru, India, wrapped up two days of talks Saturday without a jointly-issued statement related to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Both China and Russia opposed any sort of references to the war, issued in the traditional communiqué, following the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.
The two countries are permanent G20 members and argued the economic forum was not the proper place to discuss security issues, leading to a post-meeting summary rather than the more unified communiqué.
"Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy --constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks," the summary states in its fourth paragraph.
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"There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy."
The war marked its one-year anniversary Friday.
China and Russia opposed using "war" in the language, arguing instead for terms like "crisis" or a "challenge" to describe the current "geopolitical situation" in Ukraine, reducing the significance of the conflict.
Both countries also dissented, failing to join the remaining nations in agreeing the war is constraining economic growth, increasing inflation, disrupting global supply chains and creating food insecurity and financial risks.
"We jointly condemn the Russian attack on Ukraine --- here there was very great common ground, however, with the exception of the very ambivalent Chinese," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told Bloomberg following the conference.
"Here we can see a shift in the Chinese attitude, which is very regrettable."
