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The G20 summit in Indonesia increased international pressure on Russiawith multiple calls this Tuesday, including from countries close to Moscow, to end the war in Ukraine It has had devastating consequences around the world.
Despite international divisions, delegations, including Russiaagreed on a final draft communiqué that underlines the “immense suffering” caused by the conflict and notes that “the majority of members firmly condemned the war in Ukraine”.
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The letter, still pending final approval by the leaders, declares that the use of nuclear weapons or the threat to resort to them is “inadmissible”, in a veiled message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also acknowledges that there are “other points of view” in the block.
Putin missed this summit on the paradisiacal island of Bali and sent his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
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Unlike a G20 meeting in July where he walked out of the room, the Russian foreign minister held on stoically, also when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared via video link.
“I am convinced that now is the time when Russia’s destructive war must and can end,” Zelensky said.
In later remarks, Lavrov said Ukraine’s demands to start negotiations “are manifestly unrealistic” and accused the West of waging a “hybrid war” against them.
Bullets don’t kill, but hunger
The calls for peace began from the very inauguration of the summit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has remained neutral during the conflict.
“We have to end the war. If the war does not end, it will be difficult for the world to move forward,” Widodo said, warning that the world cannot fall “into another cold war.”
The conflict in Ukraine and its devastating consequences monopolized the first debate session of the summit, dedicated to food and energy security.
After almost nine months of war, Ukraine repelled the initial attempted assault on kyiv and in recent months recaptured significant tracts of land, including the recent recapture of Kherson, the only provincial capital taken by Russia.
With the guns rumbling in Eastern Europe, many countries around the world are experiencing inflation that plunges millions of households into poverty and threatens a global recession.
The delegations included in the draft of the final communiqué a call to renew the pact between Moscow and kyiv to allow the export of Ukrainian grain, which expires on November 19, a request joined by Zelensky.
The agreement closed in July with the intervention of the UN and Turkey allowed the start of exporting the 20 million tons of cereals blocked by the conflict in Ukraine, one of the world’s main grain producers.
Among the G20 countries are some of the hardest hit by this inflation, such as Turkey or Argentina, where prices rose 66% and may reach up to 100% this year.
“In the southern hemisphere, food becomes more expensive or lacks and what ends up killing is not bullets or missiles, but poverty and hunger,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, who replaced President Alberto Fernández in the initial debates. indisposed.
The presidency indicated that Fernández suffered “erosive gastritis with signs of bleeding”, but is “in good health and resuming his activities”, including a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
“Russia is very isolated”
Even countries usually close to Moscow, such as China or India, joined the calls for peace, although without targeting Russia directly.
In his speech, Xi Jinping expressed his firm opposition to the “weaponization of food and energy problems”, although he also criticized Western sanctions against Moscow.
The day before, after a meeting with US President Joe Biden to set limits to the growing rivalry between the two powers, Xi agreed with his interlocutor in denouncing the threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.
Even the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, asked from Bali keep a month-long ceasefire in Ukraine during the celebration of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which begins on Sunday.
“It is clear that Russia is very isolated,” said a senior official from a Western delegation. “No one has come to the defense of Russia. There are those who do not want to attack her, but there was no one who has come to her defense,” said another Western source.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
