Bengaluru, Feb 24 (PTI) French finance minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday said that his country would oppose any 'step back' on condemnation of war in Ukraine as agreed in declaration made at G20 Bali Summit in last November.

He also expressed hope that India would play important role and "fully trust" New Delhi in this regard.

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Exactly a year back, Russia invaded Ukraine but leaders of the world's top 20 economies, referred to as G20, are debating how it should be addressed in a joint communique that is to be issued after the two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

Host India wants the geopolitical tension to be referred as a "crisis" or a "challenge" while US and other western nations want nothing short of "war" to go in the communique that is to be issued on Saturday evening.

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"That's the key point that remains open is to be very clear the wording of the condemnation of the war in Ukraine. And once again, don't make any mistake. We will oppose any step back from the declaration of the leaders in Bali. But once again, I fully trust India because India is at the driving seat," he said during a media interaction on the sidelines of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting.

At the last G20 Summit in Bali in November 2022, the declaration read: "Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine." However, some member countries held "other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions". Russia, which is part of G20, calls its invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation".

"India is playing a key role and I think that India is in the best position to have this strong communique that we are all waiting for. Either we stick to the Bali communique, or France will oppose any communique during these G20 of the finance ministers. I cannot be any clearer," he said.

The communique of the first FMCBG under India Presidency expected on Saturday detailing the roadmap for next round and agenda for the Leadership Summit later this year.

The French finance minister also said this G20 meeting was taking place one year after the declaration of the war in Ukraine and Paris used this G20 to reaffirm its strong condemnation of the illegal and brutal attack of Russia against Ukraine.

"We share the view of Prime Minister Modi that this is not and this must not be an era of war. Beyond human losses and destructions, what is at stake with this war in Ukraine are key principles of sovereignty and international order. What is at stake is the strength of growth and prosperity for the long term. One thing must be clear that there can't be sustainable and strong economic development in a time of war," he said.

The war in Ukraine is not a regional conflict but a global conflict and it was not only affecting Ukraine and European countries, but all countries around the world, he said, adding, European countries also reaffirmed their unity and their total determination to adopt new sanctions against Russia during the meeting.

"Our sanctions are strong. Our sanctions are efficient. They are hitting and reducing the oil revenues of Russia. They are freezing USD 58 billion of Russian assets. They are disorganising the Russian industry and they are undermining its war efforts. Sanctions are effective and will be more and more effective on the long term," he said.

Amid backlash from developed nation, FMCBG meeting was attended by senior representatives from the finance ministry and central bank. Finance minister of Russia and central bank governor did not attend the meeting. China was virtually represented by its finance minister Liu Kun.

Talking about challenges, he said, developing countries have been deeply suffering from the COVID, from inflation, from the consequences of the war in Ukraine and of course, from climate change.

"There is a need to act quicker, stronger, and better for developing countries. France already provided USD 4 billion of SDR to the IMF for loans. We are ready to do more and we urge the other countries to do the same. We should not underestimate the social and political consequences of this growing gap between developed countries with strong level of growth and developing countries that run the risk of lagging behind," he said.

The second concern is the level of debt, he said, there is a common framework which proved to be very efficient and it is time to implement that.

On nomination of Indian American Ajay Banga as the World Bank's president, Le Maire said there are criticism about his nomination but he is a good candidate.

After meeting US Treasury Secretary and the proposed candidate, France will firm up its response on the issue.

On international taxation, he said, the implementation of the pillar 2 minimum taxation and the completion of the negotiation of pillar 1 digital taxation should be decided without any delay.

Earlier during the day, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had a bilateral meeting with Bruno Le Maire and both leaders agreed to extend the growing economic cooperation between the two countries to new areas like renewable energy, infrastructure and green cities.

Le Maire thanked Sitharaman for the recently concluded Tata-Airbus landmark deal, the finance ministry said in a tweet.

"The discussion between the two leaders also featured the ongoing problems due to #DebtVulnerabilities of several nations," another tweet said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)