India failed in its mission to stop G20 countries from referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a 'war'

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 16, 2022.

Sergey Bobylev/Reuters

• India asked G20 members not to label Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "war" in meetings last week.
• But India appears to have failed its mission, after a joint press release called the attack "a war."
• India has not imposed sanctions on Russia and is still buying Russian oil.

India appears to have failed in its mission to stop G20 countries from calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "war." 

While hosting financial ministers of the Group of 20 in Bengaluru last week, Indian delegates tried to get members to call the Ukraine war a "challenge" or a "crisis" instead, multiple reports said.

Russia, which is a member of the G20 and sent a delegation to the meetings, has previously discouraged the use of the word "war" to refer to its military action in Ukraine. To sway public opinion, the country has been calling the war in Ukraine a "special military operation."

However, a press release published jointly by the G20 countries on Saturday describes the attack on Ukraine as "a war."

"Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy," the summary says. 

As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, India refuses to assign blame for the violence and has solidified ties with Russia. 

It is still economically supporting the country, has refused to impose any sanctions, and is buying Russian oil and natural gas. In September last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and called their countries' friendship "unbreakable."

According to a Reuters report published last week, an Indian official at the summit said that the country "is not keen to discuss or back any additional sanctions on Russia during the G20."

"The existing sanctions on Russia have had a negative impact on the world," the official, who was not named, told Reuters.

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