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Last week’s G20 summit in New Delhi has demonstrated friction between the West and other group members in assessing the crisis in Ukraine and aspirations by the leading Global South countries to be steadfast to their interests in global agenda terms.

For a second consecutive year, activities of this international forum have been affected by the situation in Ukraine. In the course of this year’s preparatory ministerial meetings, Western attempts to make joint documents feature paragraphs condemning Russia prevented them from being adopted over and over again. This also seems to have nearly disrupted the process of passing the final declaration by G20 leaders, which would be an unprecedented thing since the group started its work in 2008 to brings together G7 members (comprising the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States) with the EU, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. The current summit also saw the African Union become a full-fledged G20 member.

In the end, Western diplomats, although referring to the Russian and Chinese intransigence, did not risk provoking a split with the Global South, whose balanced position was fully manifested at the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, with the final document consisting no assessments of Russia. "All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state, <…> The peaceful resolution of conflicts, and efforts to address crises as well as diplomacy and dialogue are critical," the declaration reads, seemingly adopted at the nick of time.

By contrast, the 2022 G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, sent the following message: " Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine," adding that "there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions."

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters, "The West has failed to ukrainize the G20 declaration <…> The Ukrainian crisis is mentioned, but exclusively in the context of the need to resolve all the conflicts that exist in the world in accordance with all the purposes and principles of the UN Charter <…> there is a correct understanding of what is happening among the developing members of the G20 <…> I believe that some of our Western colleagues understand it too."

Formulations adopted in Delhi obviously reflect both the balanced assessments of what is happening in Ukraine by the Global South, and the region’s enhancing ability to defend its stance in the face of Western pressure. This has also clearly manifested itself in other topical G20 issues.

The Human Rights Watch international organization urged the group’s leaders to overcome incoherence over Ukraine for the sake of solving other global problems.

Meanwhile, the G20 agenda covered crucial issues such as energy and food security, strategies to stimulate the global economy weakened by soaring interest rates in the United States and Europe.

Here, the West has sought to push its approaches as well. The United States and its allies sought to make Moscow accountable for global economic challenges like skyrocketing energy prices and food shortages, while galvanizing international support for anti-Russian economic sanctions. However, this met fierce resistance with India and China, being major importers of Russian natural resources. The final document once reiterated their balanced compromise formulations. The leaders "highlighted the human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine with regard to global food and energy security, supply chains, macro-financial stability, inflation and growth, which has complicated the policy environment for countries," the document says. In fact, the Global South refuses to convict Russia of global economic and financial instability.

The problem, however, is not only that many countries of the Global South have stable economic ties with Russia.

At the G20 meeting, they recalled Western pledges "to ensure a balance of interests for the world economy", clearly and persistently seeking their interests to be taken due account of, according to Mr. Lavrov. The G20 is undergoing an "internal reform": the Global South is "striving to strengthen its role in the mechanisms of global governance so that its real weight is reflected in world affairs,” he stressed, “and no one advocates that these demands be implemented to the detriment of the West”. Everyone is interested in working together, but this requires honesty.