G20 meeting of finance ministers ends without final declaration

At their meeting in São Paulo, the finance ministers of the G20 countries were unable to agree on a final declaration. There has been no consensus, particularly when it comes to assessing the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Due to disagreements over the war in Ukraine, the finance ministers and central bank heads of the leading industrialized and emerging countries (G20) were unable to agree on a joint final declaration of their meeting in São Paulo. Instead, the presidency country, Brazil, published its own summary.

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are only mentioned in a footnote. The ministers addressed current wars, conflicts and humanitarian crises and particularly highlighted Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, it said. Brazil, as the host of the G20 meeting, does not consider a meeting of finance ministers to be the right forum to clarify such geopolitical questions.

They want to exclude the geopolitical crises and shift the debate about them to meetings of foreign ministers and heads of state and government. The focus should be on economic policy issues.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told reporters that differences between G20 foreign ministers over regional conflicts had “contaminated” finance ministers’ talks beforehand and frustrated efforts to reach a joint statement. “There was a point where the lack of consensus was so small that it only affected one word,” Haddad said, without giving details.

Lindner: No common language found

At São Paulo airport, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasized that despite intensive efforts from all sides, it was not possible to find a consensus. A joint declaration failed because “we were unable to agree on a common language for assessing the consequences of the war in Ukraine on the global economy.”

There was also an attempt to equate the Russian attack on Ukraine with the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Germany couldn’t support that.

The FDP leader had already emphasized during the meeting that Germany could not agree to a final declaration that did not mention the geopolitical conflicts. There is the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the terror of Hamas and the humanitarian situation in Gaza. “All of this cannot leave us indifferent, it must also be discussed here,” he said. There was an objection to abandoning these questions. Lindner warned of a habituation effect that would virtually normalize the war against Ukraine.

Again, no joint communiqué

After a G20 meeting, common assessments and goals are usually recorded in a communiqué. Since the war in Ukraine, the finance ministers’ talks have repeatedly stalled because Russia is also a member of the group. Even at their meeting in India last year, the finance ministers were unable to agree on a common formulation.