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reach a joint final declaration after objections from Moscow and Beijing.

Discussions over the joint statement faltered on several issues including Russia’s insistence on an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline last year, Lavrov told reporters after the meeting through an interpreter.

Russia and Western countries have traded accusations of responsibility for the September explosions.

The United States and its European allies urged the Group of 20 (G20) nations to keep up pressure on Moscow to end the conflict, now in its second year.

Russia hit back, accusing the West of turning work on the G20 agenda into a “farce” and said Western delegations wanted to shift responsibility for their economic failures onto Moscow.

“We must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability,” Blinken said in remarks released after his address at the closed-door meeting.

“Unfortunately, this meeting has again been marred by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine,” Blinken said.

He was backed by his counterparts from Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“Unfortunately, one G20 member prevents all the other 19 from focusing all their efforts on these issues the G20 was created for,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the meeting, according to the German delegation.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra told CNBC that Russia was solely responsible for the war and must continue to be sanctioned.

Russia’s Lavrov, however, blamed the West for the global political and economic crises.

Lavrov told the assembled foreign ministers that Western representatives had derailed the meeting in an effort to scapegoat Russia for their own failings, disrespecting efforts by the Indian hosts to reach agreement on other issues.

“I want to apologise to the Indian presidency and to our colleagues from countries of the global South for the obscene behaviour of some Western delegations, which have turned the G20’s agenda into a farce,” Lavrov said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Lavrov also accused the West of “shamelessly burying” the Black Sea grain initiative that facilitates the export of Ukraine’s agricultural products from its southern ports.

India has declined to blame Russia for the war and has sought a diplomatic solution while boosting its purchases of Russian oil.

Earlier, the foreign ministers of India and China discussed bilateral “challenges” on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in New Delhi, India said.

“Our discussions were focused on addressing current challenges to the bilateral relationship, especially peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Twitter after meeting his Chinese counterpart.

Relations between the Asian giants have soured since hand-to-hand combat and scuffles between border troops first broke out in 2020.