A G-20 finance meeting communique is unlikely again amid Russia’s war

The traditional consensus statement isn’t expected when their meetings wrap up Thursday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings because of disagreements on how to refer to the war, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified.  

The likely outcome will be another “chair’s summary,” which India would issue because it holds the G-20 presidency this year. The last meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs — which took place in in Bengaluru, India, in February — ended with only a chair’s summary as well. 

That February outcome was a stepback from a joint statement agreed by all G-20 members at November’s leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia. 

At the end of the February meeting, Russia and China disagreed with two paragraphs on the war that had been cleared by all participants in November.

The standoff continued at a meeting of G-20 foreign minsters in March, which also ended without consensus after China and Russia refused to join other members in a statement in which most of them condemned Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The International Monetary and Financial Committee, the fund’s main advisory panel, is also meeting this week, a gathering that would traditionally end with a consensus communique. That was also blocked when its members met in October because of objections by Russia.