Stick to your mandate: China tells G-20 over Ukraine war

The G-20 should "focus on its mandate" and boost world economic growth, China said on Friday, when asked about the bloc's position on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“We believe that the G-20, as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, needs to focus on its mandate, enhance macroeconomic policy coordination, and boost world economic growth,” Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing.

She was responding to a question whether Beijing would agree to include a part on the Ukraine war in the joint statement, expected to be released at the summit of G-20 leaders in India.

India is hosting the G-20 summit of leaders from Saturday which concludes on Sunday.

Last year, most of the G-20 members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.

China has not condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine but has called for upholding the territorial integrity of all nations.

Russian and Chinese presidents are not attending the summit to be held in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, Mao accused the US of “hyping up the Taiwan question on various occasions” which has been “creating tensions, provoking confrontation, and seeking to turn the Taiwan question into an international issue.”

“This is highly dangerous. The most effective way to safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is to adhere to the one-China principle and unequivocally oppose ‘Taiwan independence’,” she said, responding to a report in Bloomberg which said that India was “studying possible responses to a potential war in Taiwan.”

China considers Taiwan as its "breakaway province" while Taipei has insisted on its independence since 1949.

“Taiwan is part of China. The Taiwan question is China’s internal affair. How to resolve it is a matter for the Chinese people and brooks no foreign interference,” Mao replied, according to a transcript of the news conference released by the ministry.