Russia is facing mounting diplomatic pressure to end its war in Ukraine as G20 leaders meeting in Indonesia lamented the high cost of the eight-month conflict.
In a draft declaration, the countries, including Russia, deplored the impact of the “war in Ukraine”, a conflict that “most members strongly condemned”, reports RTE.
The group is also expected to declare that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons” is “inadmissible,” a veiled rebuke from President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly raised the spectre of a nuclear conflagration.
Putin was forced to miss the summit because he is dealing with a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats and a thunderous war that threatens the future of his regime.
Adding salt to his wounds, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, fresh from a visit to liberated Kherson, has launched an impassioned video appeal to the G20 leaders.
Zelensky told Chinese leaders Xi Jinping to American Joe Biden that they could “save thousands of lives” by pushing for a Russian withdrawal.
“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped,” he said, wearing his now-trademark military green T-shirt, reports RTE.
Putin’s deputy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, remained at his post throughout Zelensky’s speech, two diplomatic sources told AFP.
The veteran diplomat had preparations for the summit interrupted by two trips to a Bali hospital in as many days due to an unknown illness.
The United States and its allies have sought to use the summit to broaden the coalition against Russia’s invasion and push back against Moscow’s claims of an East versus West war.
“Many see Russia’s war in Ukraine as the root source of immense economic and humanitarian suffering in the world” a senior US official said, reports RTE.
Russia and its G20 allies China, India and South Africa have refrained from explicitly criticizing Putin’s war, and the draft joint statement is full of diplomatic hassles and linguistic gymnastics.
But it gives a growing idea of the global impact of the war.
Argentina and Turkey, members of the G20, are among the nations most affected by global food inflation, but there was hardly a country around the table that has not been affected by high food and fuel prices.
“The war is affecting everyone” said Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.
There was also a hint of China’s growing unease over Russia’s continuation of the war when Presidents Xi and Biden met last night.
Both men expressed opposition to the “use or threat of use” of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the White House said, although Beijing has not repeated this concern publicly.
Another focus of the conversation was an agreement that allows Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea.
It expires on November 19, and Russia has already threatened to take it from us.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top wheat producers, and the Russian invasion blocked 20 million tons of wheat at its ports before the United Nations and Turkey negotiated the deal in July.
The G20 should urge “full, timely and continued implementation”, reports RTE.
The preparation for the summit has largely focused on Xi, who is making only his second trip abroad since the start of the pandemic.
Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden cooled off the Cold War rhetoric during yesterday’s three-hour talks, taking some of the heat out of their seething superpower rivalry.
“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” Mr Xi told Mr Biden, reports RTE.
Former US diplomat Danny Russel described the meeting as very positive.
“We should beware of prematurely declaring the strategic rivalry over. However, we saw a deliberate effort to stabilise a dangerously overheated relationship,” reports RTE.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the G20 to contain the fallout from interest rate hikes as the US Federal Reserve moves aggressively to fight inflation.
“We must contain global inflation and resolve systematic risks in the economy and finance,” Mr Xi told the Bali summit, reports RTE.
The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to the highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis as it seeks to tighten the money supply in an effort to tackle inflation.
The US monetary stance has pushed the dollar to levels not seen in two decades, causing problems for developing economies that rely on exports or are trying to curb inflation.
Mr Xi, on his second foreign trip since the pandemic, addressed the summit the day after meeting US President Joe Biden.
Talks with Biden have been extraordinarily friendly, with both leaders indicating they want to ease tensions that have flared in recent months.
The White House said Xi and Biden are in agreement against any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine as the United States tries to further distance Beijing from its nominal ally in Moscow.
In his remarks to the G20, Xi offered possible veiled criticism of Russia, which has attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and, even in a UN-brokered deal, blocked Ukraine’s vital grain exports.
“We must firmly oppose politicisation, instrumentalisation and weaponisation of food and energy problems,” Mr Xi said, reports RTE.
He also repeated his well-known opposition to Western sanctions and warned against growing differences between countries.
FIFA appeals for World Cup ceasefire in Ukraine
The president of soccer’s world body today called for a month-long ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of the World Cup, saying sport could bring people together.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, addressing the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies meeting in Bali, said Sunday’s World Cup opening in Qatar could act as a “positive trigger” in the Russian invasion. Ukraine, which lasted almost nine months.
If there isn’t a complete ceasefire, there may be “the implementation of some humanitarian corridors or anything that might lead to a resumption of dialogue,” he said.
“My plea to all of you is to think of a temporary ceasefire for one month for the duration of the World Cup,” he told a G20 lunch for the leaders, reports RTE.
Describing football as unifying, he noted that Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup and that Ukraine is jointly bidding with Spain and Portugal for 2030.
“We are not naive to believe that football can solve the world’s problems,” Infantino said.
But the World Cup offered a “unique platform,” he said, as an estimated five billion people – more than half of humanity – will watch it on television.
“Let’s take this opportunity to do everything we can to start putting an end to all conflicts,” he said, reports RTE.
FIFA suspended Russia a few days after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, kicking the Russians out of World Cup qualifiers after several countries refused to play them.
The 2022 World Cup, the first to be held in the Middle East, has already been plagued by controversy, including over alleged human rights violations by Qatar, crackdown on dissent, mistreatment of foreign workers and persecution of people LGBTQ.
Mr Infantino defended the track record of the World Cup, saying that “”hundreds of thousands of workers enjoy better conditions than some years ago”, reports RTE.
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