What good can a G20 summit be without Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin? The question will weigh on the meeting organized by the president of the Italian council, Mario Draghi, on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 October, in Rome. The meeting should have marked the face-to-face reunion of the leaders of the twenty main economic powers, a first since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The absence of the Chinese and Russian presidents will be all the more noticed as it occurs in a context of strong international tensions, in particular between China and the United States, at a time when the multilateral game often seems to be running out of steam.
For his second trip abroad since coming to power, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, will try to give substance to the “Return from America” promised during the Democrat’s victorious campaign against Donald Trump. An engagement undermined by the precipitous withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the victory of the Taliban in Kabul in mid-August, and various misunderstandings with close allies, starting with France.
Joe Biden must also begin his tour on Friday, on the eve of the G20, with a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, in the hope of ending the quarrel caused by Aukus, the Indo-Pacific defense pact signed with Canberra and London. , in the back of Paris. The affair aroused a strong anger of the French leaders, forced to give up the sale of tricolor submarines to Australia, after this one broke the “contract of the century” to privilege American ships with nuclear propulsion.
The Elysee and the White House had to refine the staging of their reconciliation until the last moment. “It is a question of consolidating transatlantic cooperation at the same time as European defense”, one explains in the entourage of the French president. Strengthening American support for the fight against terrorism in the Sahel is also on the agenda. Mr. Macron also plans to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday, accused of “Duplicity” in the Aukus case.
As a prelude to his departure for Rome, the Head of State agreed to speak to Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, on Thursday morning October 28, whom he will meet at the G20. He reminded him that Australia’s about-face “had severed the relationship of trust between our two countries”. It is now up to the Australian government to propose concrete actions which would embody the will of the highest Australian authorities to redefine the bases of our bilateral relationship and to pursue joint action in the Indo-Pacific, ”the Elysee said in a statement.
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