Russia-China, West divide may raise tensions at G20

Russia-China, West divide may raise tensions at G20

• Officials concede a joint statement at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting is difficult
• The growing confrontation between Western countries and the Ra-China combine overshadowing the government’s plans for the G20 and the Ministry of External Affairs’ Raisina Dialogue.
• Officials concede that after the public spat at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting, a joint statement at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting looks unlikely for now. A final call will be made later, as India’s Sherpa Amitabh Kant leads talks with Sherpas of other G20 nations, ahead of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting. If they fail to reach a consensus, India hopes to put out a “Chairman’s outcome statement” similar to the one issued at the Finance Ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru, said officials, where “most” countries signed on to paragraphs dealing with the Ukraine war, and Russia and China agreed to the statement apart from those paragraphs.
• The tensions, that saw Russia and China come out publicly together on a multilateral stage for the first time since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, are likely to be more pronounced as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang land in Delhi for the inaugural reception to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

British’s PM Rishi Sunak and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen clinch Brexit deal over Northern Ireland trade

• The meeting followed more than a year of tense negotiations over the “Northern Ireland Protocol”, which has unsettled the province 25 years on from a historic peace deal
• Britain and the European Union agreed on a crucial overhaul of trade rules in Northern Ireland, a breakthrough aimed at resetting seriously strained relations since Brexit.
• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen adopted the deal at talks in Windsor, west of London.
• Their meeting followed more than a year of tense negotiations over the “Northern Ireland Protocol”, which has unsettled the province 25 years on from a historic peace deal that ended three decades of armed conflict.
• Agreed in 2020 as part of Britain’s EU divorce, the pact kept the province in the European single market for physical goods and subject to different customs rules than the rest of the UK, angering pro-UK unionists there and eurosceptics in London.
• The UK government had threatened a unilateral overhaul of the protocol unless the EU agreed to wholesale changes, souring diplomatic ties and risking a wider trade war, but that prospect now appears to be receding.