‘India’s G20 Presidency is extraordinary, we support all priorities put forward by it’

How do you see the change since the G20 summit in Bali (in November 2022)? Have the positions hardened on the Russia-Ukraine war, with the West on one side and Russia-China on the other side?

First of all let me say that the situation in Ukraine, the military conflict which we witness now, cannot be called, as you just mentioned. We all know that there are a number of parties now on the battlefield, and that’s the major problem with our Western colleagues. They do not accept the situation and make false statements, which really gets the G20 work stalled at some point.

Since the Bali [summit], which was definitely the success of the G20 and of all our countries, the situation has significantly changed. We all heard statements by a number of Western leaders, including, for instance, Secretary General of NATO [Jens] Stoltenberg who mentioned that the war, as they call it, started in 2014. Not just last year, as they say all the time right now. And that they were not willing to, from the very beginning, fulfil the Minsk agreements (signed in 2014 and 2015). And they used this time of eight years to get prepared for the military aggression from Ukraine. They supported weapons, they trained their personnel and so on. And that was said by leaders of the Western community. How can we still believe that the situation hasn’t changed since the Bali Summit? This is hypocrisy.

But some Indian officials say the situation has changed on how the Sherpas are in the same room and there are no walkouts like in the past.

I have just explained how the situation has changed in our understanding and hypocritical statements by Western colleagues, preventing us from using and trying to reach a new agreement on the formulations, as we discussed last year.

So this time, we also discuss the impact of this situation on the global economy. In this regard, the situation hasn’t changed. It is not the conflict which provoked for instance, high inflation in the Western countries. We all noticed that the peak in prices happened in the middle of 2021. And right now, as per the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) of the UN, the level of prices is the same as it was in the beginning of 2021. So how is the conflict influencing the high prices and inflation? It is not that [the conflict] which is critical for food insecurity. What is critical is the disruption of global value chains, disruption of fragmentation of trade that happened after the Covid-19 pandemic. And then was exacerbated by macroeconomic fiscal policies by major economies. I mean for instance, those who obtain reserve currencies, so they spurred the peak in inflation and are now trying to put all the blame on Ukraine conflict, which actually does not affect the whole world. The world is interested in a much broader scope of challenges that we face. We face climate change, we face not good progress in implementation of sustainable development goals. These are the real challenges G20 should discuss.

India played a role in the grains initiative as well as the nuclear plants. Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Russia recently. How do you see India and China playing a possible role in the Russia-Ukraine war?

Well, I very much hope that India and China don’t have any role in the war because they are not parties to the conflict and both countries act as mediators and good friends of Russia. We are grateful to India for having such a profound cooperation with Russia and for acting as a true and balanced mediator and presidency during the G20 year. We have strategic partnerships with both China and India. And we are very happy with the recent visit of President Xi to Moscow, which really expanded our cooperation. We also hope for expanding cooperation with India [which is] also our brother nation.

Russian President Putin has at least two opportunities to visit India — SCO and G-20 summits. Will he come?

We are all expecting President Putin to come for both summits. It is not yet decided and will be announced in due course… We wish to use these events also to make our cooperation with India and our discussions more close and more deep. So that is not yet confirmed, but is [being] seriously considered. And as I mentioned, India’s priorities are very much like Russia’s national interests with regard to green development, increasing and restoring growth and trade.

How does Russia see PM Modi’s statement that this is not an era of war?

I think they were well commented by President Putin during the times they were pronounced. And I don’t think that some obvious things like, ‘people want peace’, should be treated like something addressed directly to someone. It is an obvious axiom.

When can the world see an end to this conflict?

Well, this is definitely not in my sphere of responsibility. But what I am sure of is, until all the parties to the conflict, the Western countries continue to submit weapons and train and use their personnel to continue battles, it will not end. So they must stop what they are doing now.