Leaders of the world’s Group of 20 wealthiest nations concluded the two-day summit on the Indonesian island of Bali. The G20 deplored Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in the strongest terms, among other key takeaways.
The summit was dominated by geopolitics, to the irritation of its Indonesian hosts, who had wanted the focus to be on food and energy security and the climate crisis.
The G20 meeting in Bali signaled Xi Jinping’s emergence from three years of self-imposed pandemic isolation, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, among those keen to secure a chat and photo opportunity with the Chinese leader.
Despite condemnation of Chinese human rights abuses and anxiety over its intentions in the Taiwan Strait, the largely positive tone set by Xi’s bilateral with U.S. President Joe Biden continued until the end of the summit.
Much of the opening day’s business was drowned out by an analysis of the Biden-Xi meeting 24 hours earlier. When news broke that a Russian-made missile had landed in Poland, the G20 quickly morphed into an ad hoc meeting of the G7.
Leaders gathered to discuss their response to the missile news, which killed two people near the country’s border with Ukraine.
In contrast to Xi, the G20 meeting further isolated Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. Putin did not attend, and instead sent his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to act as his diplomatic punchbag after several days of dramatic developments in Ukraine, including Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson.
Even Russia’s traditional allies, India and China, appeared to distance themselves from the Kremlin.
World leaders did not take part in the usual official “family photo” because of widespread discomfort at Russia’s presence at the summit.
The G20 Bali joint statement issued at the conclusion of the talks did not go beyond non-committal platitudes. On the climate emergency, G20 leaders simply said they had resolved to “pursue efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C”, including speeding up efforts to “phase down” the unabated use of coal.
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