The President of Ukraine delivers a speech to the G20 leaders
Volodymyr Zelensky told the G20 that “now is the time” to end Russia’s “destructive war”.
Address to the Bali Summit Virtually by UkraineZelensky said there would be no Minsk 3, referring to the two failed agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“We will not allow it Russia to wait and build up his forces… I am convinced that now is the time when Russia’s war must and can be stopped.
Referring to the ongoing fighting at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Zelensky said no one had the right to blackmail the world with a nuclear disaster and that Russia had turned the plant into a “radioactive bomb that could explode at any moment.”
Key events
West to try to convince G20 that Russia’s war in Ukraine is responsible for global economic woes
Patrick Wintour
Western leaders on Monday will try to pressure and isolate Russia in G20 meeting in Bali saying that it was Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine that led to the world’s food security crisis, mounting debt and rampant inflation.
Indonesia, which is hosting its largest-ever global gathering, has been pressing the West to tone down its criticism of Russia to prevent the summit from failing to reach agreement on broader issues. Indonesia desperately trying to avoid walkouts or arguments that lead to failure to reach a joint communiqué. But official progress on the communique was made ahead of summit talks in the rain-soaked resort on Monday.
Sergei Lavrov, veteran Russian foreign minister, represents Vladimir Putin, who backed down, fearing he faced a two-day retort from Western leaders. Putin has also come under increasing criticism from his ally China over his frequent threats to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Ahead of the summit, the US, EU and UK issued a joint statement seeking to counter Russian claims that a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea was undermined by the West’s failure to lift indirect sanctions on Russian exports fertilizers.
The grain deal agreed jointly by Turkey and the United Nations in July was a rare bit of diplomatic sunshine, but is due to be renewed on Friday. Russia and Ukraine account for approximately 30% of all wheat and barley exports, one-fifth of corn and more than half of all sunflower oil.
The deal, allowing exports past the Russian fleet from three Ukrainian ports, was crucial in pushing down grain prices.
But Russia says the deal is one-sided, as Western sanctions indirectly continue to cast a shadow over Russian grain exports by affecting payments, insurance and shipping. Russia’s foreign ministry has insisted that only providing its food and fertilizers with unhindered access to world markets will stabilize prices and guarantee future harvests. Russia has already suspended its cooperation once.
Summits of this nature usually end with a joint communique of those present, but this year it may be derailed by a lack of consensus on some key issues.
Russia will veto any strong language condemning its war Ukraine and the effect this has on global food and energy prices.
A senior US official also said the issue of debt relief for the world’s poorest countries could also prove contentious.
What you will see in the G20 statement is that 19 members of the G20 have come together to say that this is a major priority issue that we need to take collective action on, and you will see that you know, one country is still blocking progress.
The official declined to name which country is abstaining, but it appears likely to be China, a huge lender to the world’s poor countries in a policy Western countries have condemned as “debt traps” used to tighten Beijing’s grip on the global economy.
The official mentioned similar opposition to a joint agreement to restructure such debts at the October meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
French President Emmanuel Macron met with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning and called on Paris and Beijing to unite against the war in Ukraine.
On the sidelines of the G20 summit, Macron told Xi they must “join forces to respond to international crises such as Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
Xi did not mention the conflict in his opening remarks, calling more generally for the two sides to “uphold the spirit of independence, autonomy, openness and cooperation.”
It is President Xi’s second overseas trip since the pandemic and so far he has grabbed much of the limelight in Bali – with officials lining up to hold direct talks with the leader of the world’s second-largest economy.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet the Chinese leader later on Tuesday, and Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also said he hoped to speak with Xi.
We have a little more detail on the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, who canceled his G20 meetings after a positive Covid test.
His positive test came before planned meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese leader Xi Jinping – but after he hosted more than a dozen world leaders, including the US president Joe Bidenat the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh.
At the summit, which ended on Sunday, Hun Sen met with eight leaders of Southeast Asian countries, as well as the leaders of the United States, China, Japan, Australia and Canada.
In a Facebook post, he said he was tested every day, including before he flew to the G20 in Bali, and all the results were negative.
I am not sure when this virus came to me but when I arrived the Indonesians took a sample from me in the evening and in the morning it confirmed Covid-19 positive.
He said it was “lucky” that he arrived in Bali late and missed a dinner with other leaders and that for safety reasons the Cambodian delegation would return home on Tuesday.
G20 reportedly to issue statement to ‘condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine’
The G20 will reportedly issue a statement at the end of the summit in which “most” members will strongly condemn Russia’s war on Ukrainea senior US official said.
“I think you will see most members of the G20 state clearly that they condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, that they see Russia’s war in Ukraine as the root cause of enormous economic and humanitarian suffering in the world,” the official told reporters, according to the Agency France Press.
The statement to be released at the end of this week’s summit in Bali will show that G20 “truly isolates Russia” – a member of the group of the world’s largest economies.
The official did not say how many countries would not join the condemnation, nor how diplomats would craft the non-unanimous declaration into the document, which is issued by all member states.
The US official said: “Russia’s aggressive war … is condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
The leaders of G20 are now in a closed task force, we expect them to show up for lunch around 12:30pm local time.
These working groups are important – and what happens in them will feed into a communiqué at the end of the summit – but the eyes of the world should be on the bilateral meetings that happen on the sidelines of the summit.
Yesterday in China Xi Jinping met with President Joe Biden; their first face-to-face meeting as leaders.
Xi met with French President Emmanuel Macron this morning and will meet with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later today.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met his Canadian counterpart for a casual dinner at a Bali restaurant on Monday evening.
Anthony Albanese met with the host of the meeting, Joko Widodo, on Monday evening. The Indonesian president was one of the first foreign leaders Albanese met after becoming prime minister in May.
Indonesia’s president says world ‘must not fall into another cold war’
President Joko Widodo called for unity at the opening of the G20 summit and said the assembled leaders must not allow the world to fall into another cold war.
His remarks are likely to be interpreted as commenting on the effects of the war on Russia Ukraine has an impact on the wider global economy.
Without ever speaking directly about the war in Ukraine, he said that if the war does not end, it will be difficult for the world to move on.
Indonesia has tried its best to overcome many big differences. We have no other option, cooperation is absolutely necessary.
After the President of Indonesia opened the summit, the first working session between the world leaders will begin.
These sessions are closed to the media.
This morning’s meeting should be about food and energy security. This is a theme that Indonesia pushed forward as host of the summit, with a special emphasis on support for low- and middle-income countries.
The President of Indonesia officially opens the G20 meeting
President Joko Widodo opened the meeting with a speech to the assembled world leaders.
He said “the eyes of the world were on” their meeting.
Adding that G20 meeting “must succeed”, Widodo said the world was facing “crisis after crisis, exacerbating rivalry”.
“The world is facing extraordinary challenges,” the Indonesian president said, and the impact is being felt “very strongly on food and energy supplies.”
president of the usa Joe Biden just arrived at the opening of the G20 in Bali. He was welcomed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo who then escorted him to the main hall of the meeting venue.
Now that he has arrived, the first working sessions of the summit will begin. It is at these meetings that the official questions of G20 will be discussed by world leaders.
They are then due to break at around 12:30 local time for lunch before reconvening in the afternoon for the second working session, which will be closed to the press.
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