Moscow’s Ambassador to India Denis Alipov underscored the pressure on India’s presidency in the elite group of world’s largest economies
The upcoming G20 summit, an informal gathering of world’s largest economies that India will host next week, could be used by “some countries” to push their agenda on Ukraine crisis, instead of focusing on the global economic and financial issues, Moscow believes.
Speaking at en event in New Delhi a week before global leaders will land in India’s capital to participate in the summit, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said “Unfortunately, the India’s presidency [in G20] experiences strong pressure from some countries who, in Russia’s opinions, hijacked the G20 agenda, making the Ukrainian crisis as one of the topics”.
Reiterating Moscow’s long-time stand, Alipov said G20 should focus on economic and financial aspects, and there has been a consensus over it. “But since the last year is was decided by some members of the group to discuss political issues within the G20, something that we do not accept,” Alipov affirmed, adding that if there is no consensus on this topic being a part of agenda, it should be removed from it.
“G20 has been established for responding to financial and economic problems that the world faces, not geopolitical problem,” he stated noting that Moscow is open to discussions on Ukraine conflict at other forums that are appropriate for that.
Moscow has supported the priorities of India’s G20 presidency, including sustainable development and climate finance, inclusive growth and digital transformation, Ambassador noted, adding Russia hopes that the outcome of the summit “will reflect the agenda India has put forth”.
Underscoring the rise of India’s role in international affairs that, he said it will only keep increasing, and New Delhi “will be one of the centres of the decision making very soon”. The envoy reiterated that Moscow supported India’s permanent membership at the UN Security Council.
“Internationally, our priority remains to support just, equal and multipolar world, and BRICS and SCO expansions reflect growing interest of developing world, the Global South, towards more equal and more just, inclusive global governance which so-called ‘collective west’ continues to dominate,” Alipov said.
Responding to questions on Russia’s view of ongoing tensions between India and China, diplomat noted that Moscow’s relations with New Delhi, as well as with Beijing, have been “wholesome”. “We do not develop our relationship with any country at the expense of relationship with the other [countries],” he noted.
Alipov emphasised the robust growth of Russia-India bilateral trade over the past one year. While the countries continue to face issues with strengthening the payment mechanism in national currencies, which has not been performing in its full capacity, according to diplomat, due to “reluctance” of Indian banks to process such transactions as they fear US sanctions, the overall dynamic has been positive.
Alipov also noted that the countries have been now focusing on increasing India’s exports to Russia. “This is an opportune time for Indian business to export to Russia,” he said, referring to vacant niches in the Russian market across many sectors after the withdrawal of Western companies.
