At the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Bali, Indonesia, members are struggling to reach a consensus on the war in Ukraine.
The US and its Western allies are pushing for a condemnation of Russia in a joint statement, but that is extremely unlikely as Russia is a member of G20, and so are other countries reluctant to condemn Moscow, including China.
A draft statement circulating the summit on Tuesday acknowledges that there are differing views on the war but also “deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation” and “demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.”
With the strong condemnation of the war, there’s no chance that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is attending the summit on behalf of Vladimir Putin, would approve the statement.
Lavrov said the Western G20 members tried to “politicize” the statement. “Yes, our Western colleagues tried in every way to make that declaration politicized and tried to push through language that implied condemning the actions of the Russian Federation on behalf of the entire G20, which includes us,” he said.
In a speech on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s stance on the war, that Beijing seeks peace talks and a ceasefire. He also called for the lifting of “unilateral sanctions” and called on members not to politicize food and energy issues.
The G20 includes the world’s leading economies and developing nations. Other G20 members besides China have not followed along with the US sanctions campaign against Russia, including Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, and India.
G20 is the perfect place to remind Biden and Blinken that the entire world is not behind their highly propagandized version of the Ukraine War. In fact, there is scant support at all outside the west. They need to realize their hubris and start pushing for genuine peace talks.
Unfortunately, I do not believe they are capable of such introspection. Indonesian president reminded everyone that this conference is about wconomy and challenges it faces, Not a conference on geopolitics. Yet, US blindly barrels on, to the dismay and disguist of others.
Saudi Arabia just held its own investment conference. It soecifically disinvited US government representatives to avoid turning the investment forum into being hijacked by lolitical agenda,
There is no learning — just the expectations of obedience of others.
These people do not even know how to save face. By being pushy, and unwilling to accomodate — they make everyone uncomfortable. And when faced with defeat -/ take marbles and go home.
The rest of the world knows that the unstated programme is a unipolar world.
The U.S. is trying to hold on to its position as the dominant player that rules the world and the rest of the world outside of the usual suspects aren’t having it.
Could have all been avoided if we had just listened to Russia’s concern about NATO encroachment into Ukraine. All that needed to be done was assurances that Ukraine would not be invited to join NATO and for Ukraine to stop killing their own people in eastern Ukraine.
In a nutshell, Rightster.
And that’s what it was all about.
China and India alone already comprises nearly 30 percent of the world population. Add to that Africa, most of Latin America and SE Asia and you come to more than half the world’s population. Countries opposing Russia are mainly the EU and North America (not to forget New Zealand and Australia).