G20 leaders avoid blaming Russia over Ukraine invasion as Biden struggles to rally support

WASHINGTON — The Group of 20 stopped short of condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine in this year's summit in New Delhi − and did not explicitly call out Russia as the aggressor.

"All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state," the joint statement said. "The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible."

The softer language showed the deepening fractures among leaders of the world's top economies as the 19-month long war drags on in eastern Europe. In the absence of Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, President Biden had hoped to rally support for Ukraine abroad as voters from both parties have begun to question the U.S. ongoing military aid.

A CNN poll released in August showed that a slim majority of Americans, 55%, now oppose providing additional assistance. And even among Americans who do support the war, there is widespread concern about when it will end.

Russia is a member of the G20, and its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was present for the summit. Putin has not attended the conference since invading Ukraine in February of 2022. Ukraine is not part of the economic organization and its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was not invited by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend.

More: Biden asks Congress for more than $13 billion in aid to Ukraine. He may be in for a fight.

A statement from group at a previous summit in Bali when Indonesia, which has also refused to take sides in the war, hosted the world's biggest economies contained a straightforward condemnation of Putin's invasion.

The organization said it "deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine."

"Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy – constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks," the statement said.

Acknowledging the divide in the group over the war, the 2022 statement said, "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy."

The newer statement, released in New Delhi on Saturday, said the "negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine" on the global economy has "complicated the policy environment for countries, especially developing and least developed countries which are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic."

"There were different views and assessments of the situation," it assessed.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden struggles to rally Ukraine support; G20 avoids blaming Russia