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G20 FMM offers outlet to relieve tensions over Ukraine war
In a first meeting of major global players since war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, host Indonesia succeeded in offering a forum for discussion that aimed to reduce tensions.
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Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (on screen) delivers a speech during the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on July 8, 2022.
(AFP/Willy Kurniawan)
Indonesia urged foreign ministers from Group of 20 member states to help end the war in Ukraine, during the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) on Friday in Nusa Dua, Bali.
In its capacity as the holder of this year’s G20 presidency, the country presided over a day of “frank and constructive discussions” during which barbs were traded between the West and Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its far-reaching impacts on the global economy inevitably emerged as the main topic of the two-day forum. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said that nearly all of her 23 bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event had specifically broached the topic.
“It is our responsibility to end the war sooner rather than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not [on] the battlefield,” Retno said in her opening speech for the plenary.
The G20 FMM was partly overshadowed by the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe as well as the resignation of United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with the latter prompting UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to cut her trip short to return home.
Speaking after the forum had concluded, Retno offered Japan her deepest sympathy and condolences for the “untimely demise” of Abe, who was shot while campaigning ahead of a parliamentary election.
She also offered her personal reflections of the day in place of the usual outcome documents such as a communiqué or a chair’s statement, ministry officials told The Jakarta Post.
