New Delhi:The G20 shouldn’t be a “magic discussion board” for locating an answer to the Ukraine struggle, although the disaster triggered by the Russian invasion shouldn’t be solely a European downside because it has implications for meals and vitality safety all over the world, the senior-most US diplomat in India mentioned on Friday.

Within the context of the Ukraine battle, each the US and India assist a rules-based worldwide order despite the fact that the insurance policies adopted by the 2 international locations “aren’t essentially all the time the identical”, US chargé d’affaires Elizabeth Jones mentioned in her first media interplay since taking up the place.

The US, she mentioned, is “very energised” by India taking up the G20 presidency because it demonstrates to the worldwide neighborhood India’s management capability in a really complicated world and at a time when all international locations are grappling with challenges in areas reminiscent of local weather change, well being and schooling.

Requested if the US aspect could be ready to “be in the identical room because the Russians” throughout India’s presidency in gentle of the deep divisions between the 2 sides over the Ukraine struggle, Jones replied, “Yeah, my colleagues see them [Russians] usually in varied conferences. There isn’t a giant effort to have conferences but additionally the G20 isn’t targeted on fixing the [Ukraine] struggle both.

“That’s not the objective of the G20. We shouldn’t look to that to be some type of a magic discussion board for all of a sudden there [being] a dialogue about peace in Ukraine. That I firmly consider will probably be finished fairly individually.”

The Ukraine disaster is being seen as one of many key challenges for India’s presidency, which started on December 1, particularly after the disaster nearly held up a joint communique on the Bali summit. Diplomatic manoeuvring by India and Indonesia helped finalise a joint assertion on the final minute, although the doc acknowledged that the G20 members stay divided of their strategy to the battle. India’s strategy – that at present’s period shouldn’t be of struggle – discovered point out within the communique.

Jones mentioned the G20 returned to its core – financial points – within the Bali summit after intensive discussions on Russia.

“There was clear willingness on the a part of all individuals to get again to the core parts of the G20 and…we perceive from our Indian colleagues that India intends throughout its G20 presidency to actually dive into the numerous points which might be concerned in worldwide economics, enterprise [and] all of the issues that have an effect on individuals’s lives,” she mentioned.

One of many issues the US and India agree on supporting a rules-based worldwide order.

“One of many hallmarks of the [India-US] relationship…is that we’re capable of have discussions about points on which we essentially agree however by which the insurance policies to get there aren’t essentially all the time the identical,” she added.

Jones, who labored on the final extension of Nato, mentioned she didn’t share the notion that the Ukraine battle is a European struggle. The struggle Russian is waging on Ukraine has affected meals safety, with wheat shipments caught in Ukraine, and vitality safety, she mentioned. The G7’s deliberate worth cap for Russian crude is geared toward lowering “as a lot as attainable the revenues that Russia earns from its oil gross sales in order that it might probably’t use these revenues to extend its capability to wage struggle in Ukraine”, Jones mentioned.

“It appears to us that it’s applicable for international locations to take that into consideration by way of the oil purchases that they make, however that’s a sovereign choice,” she mentioned.

Whereas Russia “complains about NATO and its actions”, Moscow’s actions have solely made Nato stronger, and the “risk of meals insecurity is a significant issue for a lot of international locations”, she added.