A White House official said Biden will press for a higher level of climate action from major countries at the summit, as concerns grow about the lack of consensus on emissions cuts.
G20 Sherpas, or country negotiators, have been struggling for days to agree on language because of differences over the war, hoping to get what Russia called a declaration of leaders.
Russia is represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and he has said he will hold off on a final declaration until it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises.
A source told Reuters that the joint declaration may or may not lead to unanimous agreement. It may contain different paragraphs stating the views of different countries. Or it may record agreement and disagreement in one paragraph.
A second source said, “We can put the differences down on paper and come up with a general statement saying that we must have peace and harmony around the world that everyone agrees on.”
According to another senior source in one of the G20 countries, the paragraph on war on Ukraine was agreed upon by the Western countries and sent to Russia to seek its views.
The official said Russia has the option of accepting the views of Western countries and giving its disagreement as part of the statement. In the absence of an agreement, India would have to issue a presidential statement, which would mean that for the first time in 20 years the G20 summit would not have a declaration.