NEW DELHI: It is difficult to predict if leaders of the G20 grouping gathering for a summit in New Delhi this weekend can reach consensus on a declaration, European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday.
Analysts say deeper and more entrenched divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine risk derailing progress on issues such as food security, debt distress and global cooperation on climate change when the world’s most powerful nations meet.
“It’s difficult to predict if it will be possible to have an agreement on the declaration,” Michel told a press conference in the Indian capital. “We are still negotiating.”
He added, “I don’t intend to say something that will make the efforts more difficult. We support the efforts made by the Indian presidency.”
India, which is chairing the grouping, wants the summit’s final communique to also accommodate the views of Russia and China, which have blocked Western nations’ efforts to include strong condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Chinese President Xi Jinping is attending the summit, with Moscow sending instead Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while Premier Li Qiang will represent Beijing.
Michel said the European Union wanted the G20 to focus on tackling global challenges to food and energy security, saying Russia was blocking Ukraine’s exports of grain through the Black Sea, one of the key issues to feature in the weekend’s talks.
“The EU will continue to strongly back Ukraine and pile pressure on Russia,” he said, adding that it was crystal clear that the bloc condemned the Russian aggression.
“By deliberately attacking Ukraine’s ports, the Kremlin is depriving people of food they desperately need.”
Russia withdrew from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal in July, citing a lack of progress on its own food and fertilizer exports.
Michel did not foresee the summit solving all “major” global problems, he said, but added that the EU wanted the bloc to hasten efforts on sustainable development, climate change and poverty reduction.
![]()
EU’s Michel says it is hard to predict if G20 can agree on summit declaration
Short Url
https://arab.news/wjcs2
EU’s Michel says it is hard to predict if G20 can agree on summit declaration
- Michel did not foresee the summit solving all “major” global problems
Carney denies claim he walked back Davos speech in Trump call
- Carney’s speech last week in Davos urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence
- Trump told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States”
TORONTO: Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday denied a claim that he walked back his speech at the World Economic Forum denouncing US global leadership in a subsequent call with President Donald Trump.
Carney’s speech last week in Davos, which captured global attention, said the rules-based international order led by the United States for decades was enduring a “rupture” and urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence, which Washington was partly using as “coercion.”
The speech angered Trump, who told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “I was in the Oval with the president today. He spoke to Prime Minister Carney, who was very aggressively walking back some of the very unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”
Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Bessent was incorrect.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” he said.
Carney reiterated that Canada “was the first country to understand the change in US trade policy that (Trump) had initiated, and we’re responding to that.”
Carney told reporters that Trump initiated the Monday call, which touched on issues ranging from Arctic security, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Carney’s speech last week in Davos, which captured global attention, said the rules-based international order led by the United States for decades was enduring a “rupture” and urged middle powers to break their reliance on US economic influence, which Washington was partly using as “coercion.”
The speech angered Trump, who told Carney to watch his words as “Canada lives because of the United States.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “I was in the Oval with the president today. He spoke to Prime Minister Carney, who was very aggressively walking back some of the very unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”
Carney told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that Bessent was incorrect.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” he said.
Carney reiterated that Canada “was the first country to understand the change in US trade policy that (Trump) had initiated, and we’re responding to that.”
Carney told reporters that Trump initiated the Monday call, which touched on issues ranging from Arctic security, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.