Russia under pressure as G20 tackles Ukraine war, soaring food prices, Using the G20 summit as a platform, the United States and its allies applied intense pressure to President Vladimir Putin’s government on Tuesday to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine. US and European officials framed the Bali summit as proof of Russia’s growing isolation, looking toward an united G20 resolution that would denounce Russia’s eight-month-old incursion and threats to use nuclear weapons. On condition of anonymity, a senior US official said, “I think you’re going to see most members of the G20 make explicit that they reject Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
Russia under pressure as G20 tackles Ukraine war, soaring food prices
Many “view Russia’s conflict in Ukraine as the root source of great economic and humanitarian hardship around the world,” the statement continued. “Russia’s war of aggression is being condemned in the harshest possible terms.” It was still far from certain that China, India, and South Africa, friends of Russia in the G20, would agree to language that would explicitly denounce Putin’s war.
Such a rebuke at the G20 would represent a significant diplomatic setback for Moscow, which has been eager to portray opposition to the conflict as being dominated by the West. However, when presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met late on Monday, there was a sense of growing Chinese anxiety at Russia’s continuation of the war.
According to a White House report on the meeting, both men opposed the “use or threat of use” of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, indicated that although a draft agreement had been accepted in principle, work remained.
As the summit kicked off, he told the reporters, “I am completely certain that we should try to utilize the gathering today and tomorrow to encourage all of the participants to put greater pressure on Russia.” As more people fall into poverty and some countries are pushed into recession, G20 leaders are meeting in Bali.
In a statement prior to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s statements, British officials stated that “every home on the earth is feeling the brunt of Putin’s conflict.” US allies believe that this justification is accepted by G20 countries which, although being circumspect in their criticism of Russia, are gravely concerned about price increases.
Argentina and Turkey, both G20 members, are among the nations most affected by food inflation, although India and South Africa have escaped condemnation of Moscow. In order to deal with the fallout from a string of humiliating defeats on the battlefield in a conflict that his supporters thought would be over in a matter of days, Putin has decided to forgo the summit.
Rubbing salt in the wound, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky — fresh from a visit to liberated Kherson — will address G20 leaders in a video message. In Putin’s sted, Russia is represented by Sergei Lavrov, despite the veteran foreign minister making two Bali hospital trips in as many days for an undisclosed ailment.
Moscow denied the top diplomat had been hospitalised. Although a seasoned and pugilistic diplomat, Lavrov is not seen as part of Putin’s inner circle — meaning the chance of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the war is vanishingly small.
With Zelensky and Putin absent “there is little chance of any real peace diplomacy in Bali,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group. Still, French President Emmanuel Macron has kept an olive branch extended. He will call Putin after the G20 summit, according to a senior French official.
– Grain corridor –
Another topic of discussion is likely to be an agreement that allows Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea but is about to expire. On November 19, the agreement expires, and Russia has already threatened to renege on it. Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, expressed optimism that Russia would extend on Monday, saying the deal was essential for food security. According to Guterres, “I am hoping that the Black Sea grain program will be resumed.”
One of the biggest producers of grains in the world, Ukraine had 20 million tonnes of grain stopped from entering its ports by the Russian invasion before the United Nations and Turkey mediated the agreement in July. In an increasing number of places around the world, famine and hunger need to be prevented, Guterres added.
As the only foreign trip Xi has taken since the pandemic, the summit’s build-up has been centered on him. A day after his first presidential meeting with Biden, he has meetings on Tuesday with the leaders of France and Australia. Macron and Albanese are both from France.
In a three-hour summit, the two tried to defuse their simmering superpower rivalry by lowering their Cold War rhetoric. Biden was informed by Xi that “the world expects that China and the United States would appropriately handle the relationship.” Former US diplomat Danny Russell characterized the encounter as generally favorable. “We must be careful not to prematurely declare the strategic conflict to be over. However, we observed a conscious effort to cool down a potentially explosive relationship.”
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