REUTERS, New Delhi

G20 countries have almost finalised a declaration for the weekend summit of its leaders, host India said yesterday, suggesting that negotiators had made progress in bridging differences in the group over the war in Ukraine.

The streets of the usually bustling capital New Delhi were deserted ahead of the summit with businesses, offices and schools closed as part of security measures to ensure the smooth running of the meeting, the most high-powered to be hosted by the country.

Slums, monkeys and stray dogs have been removed from the streets.

India’s G20 sherpa, or negotiator, Amitabh Kant said the summit’s concluding statement, the Leaders’ Declaration, will be a “voice” of the global south and developing countries.

“New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration is almost ready, I would not like to dwell on it,” Kant told a news conference. “This declaration will be recommended to the leaders.”

Negotiators of the Group of 20 major economies have been struggling for days to agree on the language in the document because of differences over the war, hoping to get Moscow and Beijing on board to produce a communique that will also address pressing global problems like debt and climate change.

The weekend summit in New Delhi is expected to be dominated by the West and its allies. Chinese President Xi Jinping is skipping the meeting and sending Premier Li Qiang instead, while Russia’s Vladimir Putin will also be absent.

US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman and Japan’s Fumio Kishida, among others, will attend.

China said yesterday it is Sunak

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