BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil has reached agreement for consensus documents to be approved at the G20 finance meetings scheduled for next week in Rio de Janeiro, Mauricio Lyrio, Brazil’s ambassador at the G20, said on Friday.
Finance leaders from the world’s largest economies failed in February to issue a joint statement amid a lack of consensus on geopolitical issues, despite Brazil’s efforts to focus on a short text aligning with its priorities of addressing inequality, poverty and climate change.
“We will no longer require the inclusion of geopolitical language in ministerial documents,” said Lyrio, emphasizing that the agreement was endorsed by all G20 members.
According to Lyrio, for each consensus statement produced by the G20 countries, the Brazilian G20 presidency will issue a separate document that will deal with geopolitical issues.
Lyrio, Brazil’s sherpa at the G20, had said this month that G20 diplomats had agreed to avoid prickly geopolitical issues during their ministerial meetings, preparing for a summit in November.
Last year, the G20 summit in New Delhi ended with a leaders declaration that avoided condemning Russia for its war in Ukraine, although it highlighted the suffering the conflict had caused and called on all states not to use force to seize territory.
(Reporting by Bernardo Caram, Editing by Franklin Paul and Rod Nickel)
