New Delhi: After G20 leaders reached a consensus and adopted the New Delhi Declaration Saturday, Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, took to social media to criticise the language of the text. Criticism from Ukraine comes in the wake of the G20’s call “to ensure the immediate and unimpeded deliveries of grain, foodstuffs, and fertilisers/inputs from the Russian Federation and Ukraine”.
The United Nations is engaged in negotiations aimed at giving Russia some relief from sanctions in return for its renewed endorsement of the Black Sea Grain Initiative — an agreement negotiated last July between Turkey, the UN, and Russia to ensure the “resumption” of Ukrainian and Russian grain exports via the Black Sea.
Expressing Kyiv’s disappointment over the declaration, which neither mentions the Russian invasion of Ukraine nor condemns the war, Nikolenko stated, “the Group of 20 has nothing to be proud of.”
G20 adopted a final declaration. We are grateful to the partners who tried to include strong wording in the text. However, in terms of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, G20 has nothing to be proud of. This is how the main elements of the text could look to be closer to reality pic.twitter.com/qZqYluVKKS
— Oleg Nikolenko (@OlegNikolenko_) September 9, 2023
Taking numerous lines from the declaration, Nikolenko then edited the text to “look…closer to reality”.
For instance, he picked up the phrase ‘concerning the war in Ukraine, all states must act in a manner consistent with purposes and principles of UN charter’ from paragraph 8 of the 2023 G20 declaration, and altered it to: ‘Concerning war against Ukraine, Russia must act in a manner consistent with purposes and principles of UN charter.’
Nikolenko also added a condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by G20 members to his version of the declaration. Unlike last year’s G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration, the words “condemn” or “aggression” did not find mention in the Delhi Declaration in the context of the situation unfolding in Ukraine.
Rather, the 83-paragraph joint communique highlighted the need to “uphold the principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty, international humanitarian law”, as well as the “human suffering and negative added impacts of war” in Ukraine, and expressed G20’s support for efforts to effect “comprehensive, just, and durable peace”.
The declaration also called on all member states to refrain from using force to “seek territorial acquisition”, while stating that ‘there were different views and assessments of the situation’ in Ukraine.
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Black Sea Grain Initiative
The subsequent paragraph 11 of the document acknowledged the role of Turkey and the United Nations in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. It called for the “full, timely and effective implementation (of the BSGI) to ensure the immediate and unimpeded deliveries of grain, foodstuffs, and fertilisers/inputs from the Russian Federation and Ukraine”.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in 2022, allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea despite the war, but Russia quit the framework in July this year, citing non-fulfilment of promises made to Moscow. The Kremlin also protested restrictions on Russian agricultural exports, while stating that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to developing countries in need.
The declaration adopted Saturday specifically mentions Africa and acknowledges the impact the deal’s failed renewal has had on low-income countries relying heavily on Ukrainian grain.
Last month UN Secretary-General António Guterres had offered the Kremlin some relief from sanctions in exchange for the country’s renewed participation in the grain deal.
In a letter dated 28 August, Guterres offered Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov ‘a set of concrete proposals’ with a list of actions, including relief from sanctions, reconnecting a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, creating an insurance platform, unblocking foreign assets of Russian fertiliser producers and enabling Russian ships to enter European ports.
However, the Kremlin rejected the UN’s proposal, calling it “a new dose of promises”.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated Moscow’s position on the deal, emphasising that Russia was “ready to immediately return to it as soon as the promises made to us are fulfilled”.
Speaking to the media after the conclusion of the G20 Summit in New Delhi Sunday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “We (Turkey and Russia) have discussed the issue of the Black Sea Grain Initiative at every length at Sochi.”
He was referring to his meeting with Putin at Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi last week.
Erdoğan added that Russia, Qatar and Turkey are pushing for the export of 1 million tonnes of grains to African nations in need. Asked about discussions on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Erdoğan told the media, “We (Turkey) believe any attempts to isolate Russia are bound to fail. Any steps to escalate tensions in the Black Sea should be avoided.”
Since the breakdown of the BSGI, Ukrainian ports have faced numerous attacks, resulting in destruction of grain silos and infrastructure, which has led to loss of more than “60,000 tonnes of grain”. Both Russia and Ukraine have targeted merchant ships passing through the region, with Kyiv declaring six Russian ports on the Black Sea coast ‘war-risk areas’.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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