stalemate-as-china-attempts-to-soften-the-g20’s-position-on-the-crisis-in-ukraine

China reportedly tried to downplay any mention of the Ukraine war as G20 finance ministers battled on Saturday to come to an agreement following their talks in Mumbai.

Due to the “less helpful” attitudes of a few unnamed countries, agreement on a closing statement for the G20 finance ministers meeting was proving challenging.

According to sources, China wants to amend the phrasing of a November G20 leaders’ statement that states that “majority members strongly denounced the violence” in Ukraine.

China, according to one delegate, wanted the term “war” removed.

Others, who have made the same claim at numerous other similar events since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, said a joint statement is now unlikely.

G20 negotiations continued into the morning.

Relief from debt, anyone?

The two-day conference included a session on debt relief for less developed nations affected by the war’s astronomical inflation rates.

Prior to the summit, the International Monetary Fund reported that approximately 15% of low-income nations were in debt difficulty and an additional 45% were at high danger.

Chinese officials were urged to “take a haircut” on its loans to heavily indebted countries like Zambia and Sri Lanka by Western officials, notably US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

China wants multilateral lenders to restructure their own loans, but the United States and others are opposed to this. Beijing perceives the World Bank as being controlled by the West.

At the conference of the finance ministers, initiatives to enact a worldwide tax on tech companies and expanding the scope of