Vladimir Putin never dared to attend the G20 summit, where he could expect cold criticism.
On Monday, the participants of the G20 summit, the seventeenth meeting of the heads of state of the G20, which will be held on November 15-16, gathered in Bali. The G20 is the EU (as a community of countries) and 19 other states (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Great Britain, Mexico, Russia, USA, Turkey, France, South Korea, South Africa, Japan, Saudi Arabia). The G20 accounts for nearly 80% of the world’s gross domestic product, up to 77% of international trade, two-thirds of the world’s population. Fearing criticism, Vladimir Putin did not go to the summit. The Russian dictator’s decision not to attend the G20 summit “speaks for itself,” said Jay Sullivan, US national security adviser.
Putin went into hiding
There were many rumors about the possible arrival of the Russian president at the summit, until last week the Kremlin officially announced that the Russian delegation to Indonesia will still be headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
This gave other participants a reason to infer that Putin was trying to avoid direct criticism of himself in this way. Some of the countries’ leaders said they would express their anger in Putin’s face for invading Ukraine, because he was supposed to go to the summit in person. This was said, for example, by the new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“Putin’s war has caused devastation around the world, destroying lives and plunging the global economy into chaos. This G20 summit will not be a routine affair – we will hold the Putin regime accountable and expose its utter contempt to the kind of international cooperation and respect for sovereignty that the forums represent in the G20,” Sunak said on the eve of his departure to Indonesia.
Now, it seems, all these words will go to Sergei Lavrov. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was unhappy with Putin’s absence from the summit, Spiegel reports.
“It would be good if President Putin himself attended the G20 summit,” Scholz quoted the newspaper as saying. “But then he has to personally face all the questions and all the criticisms coming from most countries of the world.”
“That’s probably why he’s not here,” Scholz suggested.
At the same time, the chancellor assured reporters that Putin’s absence would not prevent other countries from strongly criticizing the Kremlin’s war of occupation and urging Moscow to withdraw troops from Ukraine and create conditions for talks. peaceful.
Ukrainian authorities, in turn, said they intend to seek Russia’s exclusion from the G20 during the summit in Indonesia.
very important meeting
While Putin was hiding, on the eve of the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met in person. This is the first meeting of major world leaders.
“I want to keep the lines of communication open between you and me personally, but also between our governments as a whole, because our two countries have so much in common,” the US President said in his opening remarks. speech
The head of the PRC, in turn, noted the close attention of the world community during their meeting with Biden: “Currently, relations between China and the United States are in such a situation that we are all very worried about it, because it does not correspond to the basic interests of our two countries and people, and it is not what the international community expects of us.” And he added that the leaders of the two countries “must set the right path for US-China relations.”
Asked by reporters about a possible cold war between the US and China over the issue of Taiwan, Biden said: “I am absolutely certain that there will be no new Cold War … I don’t think there will be any imminent attempt by China to attack the Taiwan.”
Biden, he said, signaled that the US policy on Taiwan has not changed and that the US wants to resolve the issues peacefully.
Ukraine is focused
Biden recalled Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and Russia’s irresponsible threats to use nuclear weapons. “President Biden and President Xi reaffirmed their agreement that nuclear war must not be waged and cannot be won, and stated their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement. following the meeting .two leaders.
International relations expert Yang Chong of the National University of Singapore said the overall tone of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping was positive.
In his opinion, the leaders recognized that there are common grounds between the countries, including food security, climate and the desire to avoid nuclear war. The advantage is the fact that they are ready for dialogue. However, it should be treated with caution, because the relationship between China and the United States cannot be called stable.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.