A day after Moscow signed on the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration which did not mention Russia while calling for peace in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday that the Summit was a “definite success” and a “breakthrough”, paving the way for the world to move forward on challenges. Addressing the press, Lavrov praised the Global South and said it “doesn’t want to be lectured”. He called the Summit a “turning point” and a “milestone” since the Global South led the conversation. “It is a breakthrough Summit in many ways. It provides us a way forward to move ahead on many issues,” he said. He said he gave “final touches” to the declaration which he did not expect. The negotiations, he said, took place behind “closed doors” like “the election of Pope” except that “there was no smoke”. “The Sherpas, Svetlana (Lukash) worked very hard with her team,” he said. Lavrov said India played an important role in “preventing the West” from taking forward their approach on many issues, including Ukraine. He said the New Delhi Summit provided a direction towards fairness in global governance and finance. “I want to express my gratitude to India for preventing attempts to politicise the G20,” he said, adding that the West will not be able to remain a “hegemony” as “we see new centres of power coming up” in the world. On the climate change challenge, Lavrov said the Western powers have done nothing on their promise of providing USD 100 billion annually to developing countries to deal with climate change.
