There has long been speculation as to whether Russia's President Putin will attend the G20 summit. As things stand at the moment, he's not coming. Chancellor Scholz suspects why not. Putin should have listened to severe criticism. The British Prime Minister is also announcing a reckoning with Russia's war of aggression.
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin should have come to the meeting of the heads of state and government of the G20 countries in Bali. "It would have been good if President Putin had gone to the G20 summit," Scholz said in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. "But then he would have had to face all the questions and all the criticism that has been formulated by many countries around the world. That's probably why he's not there."
He does not believe that Putin will change his mind at the last minute, Scholz said. The Russian President wants to be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
In addition to Scholz, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will also be attending the G20 summit of the most important industrialized countries in Indonesia. Putin's absence will not prevent other countries from criticizing the war of aggression and calling on Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine and create the conditions for fair talks on peace, says the chancellor.
If the world community clearly expresses "that a military escalation is unacceptable from our point of view, then there must also be movement - also from the Russian government, from the Russian President - towards proposals that make peace building possible," added Scholz . The federal government is in intensive talks with all those involved. That is why we are working very diligently to form an opinion that makes it clear that international rules must be observed, "that law must prevail over power," emphasized Scholz. He is "even cautiously confident" that this will succeed.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced that the G20 meeting would focus on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The summit in Bali will not be "business as usual," Sunak said. "We will confront Putin's regime and expose his utter contempt for international cooperation and respect for forums like the G20." Unlike Russia, Britain and its allies would work together to make progress on solving economic problems and improving the lot of their own peoples.
