Indonesian President Joko Widodo opens the G20 summit on November 15, 2022 in Bali (POOL/AFP/Dita Alangkara)
Despite the divisions between countries over the invasion of Ukraine, pressure on Russia increased on Tuesday at the summit of the G20 major economies to end a war at considerable cost.
The most important gathering of world leaders since the start of the pandemic is being held without Vladimir Putin in the tropical setting of the Indonesian island of Bali. It comes nearly nine months after the start of a deadly war that sent energy and food prices soaring and saw the nuclear threat resurface.
It also exposes the divisions between Westerners supporting kyiv and other countries, China in the lead, who refuse to condemn Moscow.
However, the 20 members of this club originally created to manage economic issues have agreed on a draft press release, consulted by AFP, yet deemed unlikely in recent days given the fault lines but also the necessary agreement from Moscow.
This document, if it is adopted by the leaders, recognizes the negative repercussions of the “war in Ukraine” and takes up the term “war” which was rejected by Moscow and which evokes a “special military operation”.
He specifies that “most members” “strongly condemn” the conflict, consider “inadmissible” the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and calls for the extension of the agreement on grain exports.
The agreement negotiated in July under the aegis of Turkey, which made it possible to deliver some 10 million tons of Ukrainian cereals, expires on Friday and Moscow casts doubt on its intentions, raising fears of famines at the UN .
– “Poverty kills” –
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, November 15, 2022 at the G20 summit in Bali (POOL/AFP/BAY ISMOYO)
While Russia’s allies, such as China, India and South Africa, did not go so far as to criticize Moscow directly at the top, their negotiators agreed to text emphasizing that the impact of the war was the main factor in global energy and food supply problems.
Argentina and Turkey, also members of the G20, are among the countries most affected by these crises.
“In the northern hemisphere, the merchants of death conclude arms sales but in the southern hemisphere, food is scarce and expensive, it is not bullets or missiles that kill but poverty and hunger”, underlined the Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.
Returning from Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine just taken over by his army, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed to extend “indefinitely” the cereal agreement on which many poor countries depend.
He was one of the first to speak by videoconference to what he called the “G19”, excluding Russia.
“I am convinced that now is the time for Russia’s destructive war to stop,” said the Ukrainian president, in his usual khaki t-shirt. It “must and can be stopped”.
He detailed his plan to bring peace and ‘save thousands of lives’: distrust Russia, tolerate ‘no excuse for nuclear blackmail’ in the face of ‘crazy threats’ from Moscow and carry out a total prisoner exchange .
– ‘Unrealistic’ claims for Lavrov –
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, who represents Russia in the absence of Vladimir Putin, remained in the room during his speech.
He called the Ukrainian conditions “unrealistic” for starting talks to end the war.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, November 15, 2022 in Bali (POOL/AFP/Ludovic MARIN)
“All the problems come from the Ukrainian side which categorically refuses negotiations and puts forward manifestly unrealistic demands,” he said.
The Russian official said he met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, with whom he discussed “the obstacles” to pursuing the grain deal.
He said he spoke “briefly” with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, signaling that he was not completely sidelined.
“The Russians are very isolated. I think some countries are engaged with Russia, but this has been a very cautious approach,” a Western official nevertheless observed.
Many prisoners of war captured by Russian and Ukrainian forces in the conflict are subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including electric shocks, the UN warned on Tuesday from Geneva.
All eyes are on China, a great power whose President Xi Jinping has moved even closer to Vladimir Putin on the eve of war, forming a common front against what they describe as Western hegemonic wills.
Beijing has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24.
Members of the G20 (AFP/Jonathan WALTER)
At the G20 forum, Xi Jinping called for “firm opposition” to the “instrumentalization” of food and energy products, in a veiled criticism of his Russian ally. However, he did not spare Westerners, calling for the lifting of sanctions, such as those targeting Russia.
During a meeting Tuesday morning with the Chinese leader, French President Emmanuel Macron asked him to ask to interfere with the master of the Kremlin to convince him to return to the “negotiating table”, according to the Elysée.
© 2022 AFP
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