China alleges that the G20 is not the forum to discuss “security issues” like Ukraine

March 3 () –

The Government of China has avoided clarifying whether it blocked a final statement from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting due to the discrepancies over Ukraine, but it has warned that this forum is not the appropriate one to discuss “security issues”, online with the position already expressed by Russia.

The New Delhi meeting ended without a final statement. The summary text did set out what the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, confirmed this Friday: that “the members of the G20 had different positions on the Ukrainian question.”

“We hope that the G20 members respect each other’s concerns and send a message of solidarity and cooperation instead of one of division and mutual blame,” Mao said at a press conference.

The spokeswoman has insisted that Beijing has not changed its position on this issue and has claimed that the G20 serve to “promote a stable, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery”, therefore outside of political controversies. “It is the main forum for international economic cooperation”, she has stressed.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, also denounced this Friday that the forum “was only interested in Ukraine”. “It is a shame and this policy will fail,” he declared at a forum in India, according to the TASS agency.