Tag: G20

Indonesia president tells G20 leaders they ‘must end war’

  Nusa Dua, Indonesia | AFP | Indonesian President Joko Widodo told G20 members to “end the war” as he opened a leaders’ summit Tuesday in Bali that will be dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Being responsible means creating not zero-sum situations, being responsible here also means that we must end the war. If the war does not end, it will be difficult for the world to move forward,” he told leaders ahead of […]

Cambodian PM Hun Sen says positive for Covid after hosting ASEAN summit

  Nusa Dua, Indonesia | AFP | Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday he had tested positive for Covid-19, after hosting more than a dozen world leaders including US President Joe Biden at a summit in Phnom Penh. Asia’s longest-ruling leader said in a Facebook post that he got the positive result on arrival in Indonesia for a G20 summit, but was not experiencing any symptoms. Hun Sen had mask-less encounters with leaders from […]

Biden and Xi reassure world but US, China still on collision course: experts

by Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping both sought to lower the temperature between the United States and China during a rare summit, but few analysts expect any deeper easing of tensions. After three hours of talks in Bali, Biden said there need not be a new Cold War between the two powers and Xi told him that China was not challenging the international order. The […]

Russia faces blame as G20 tackles Ukraine war, soaring food prices

by Andrew BEATTY Agence France-Presse NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — The United States and allies will heap pressure on Russia Tuesday to end the Ukraine war, pinning painfully high global food and fuel prices squarely at Vladimir Putin’s door during a G20 summit. Leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies will gather in Bali, Indonesia to discuss soaring inflation that has driven millions more into poverty and tipped several nations toward recession. On the eve […]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ‘in good health’ after hospital checks on G20 summit eve

Denpasar, Indonesia | AFP | Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in good health after two health checks at a hospital in Bali, an Indonesian health ministry official said Monday, as Moscow denied the top diplomat had been hospitalised. Russia called reports Lavrov had been hospitalised “the highest level of fake” and Moscow’s foreign ministry spokeswoman posted a video of the 72-year-old diplomat in a T-shirt and shorts. An Indonesian official told AFP said Lavrov […]

Russia denies Sergei Lavrov hospitalised

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia on Monday denied “as the highest level of fake” reports that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had been hospitalised on his visit to Indonesia for the G20 summit. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a video of the 72-year-old diplomat in a T-shirt and shorts along with her. They were shown laughing in the video after several media reported that he was in hospital. “We’re here with Sergei Viktorovich (Lavrov) […]

Biden, Xi seek to avoid conflict at first US-China summit in years

Nusa Dua, Indonesia | AFP | by Sara HUSSEIN / Sebastian Smith Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping voiced hope Monday that the United States and China can manage growing differences and avoid conflict as they met for the first time in more than three years. Xi and Biden shook hands in front of the two nations’ flags before starting a long-awaited sit down on the Indonesian resort of Bali ahead of a Group of […]

Biden to set ‘guardrails’ in talks with Xi

by Andrew BEATTY / Sebastian Smith Agence France-Press NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — US President Joe Biden meets China’s Xi Jinping in Bali on Monday hoping to set “guardrails” for relations between the countries, as the world’s 20 largest economies hold their first major post-pandemic summit. The superpower sitdown will be Biden’s first in-person summit with Xi since taking office. The pair last met in 2017, when Biden was vice president. The leaders meet with […]

Why Putin is staying away from G20

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – The last time Russian President Vladimir Putin found himself isolated at a G20 summit was in 2014, soon after he seized Crimea — and he was so shunned that he left early. Eight years later, after launching a full-scale offensive in Ukraine in February and threatening the West with nuclear weapons, the 70-year-old Russian leader chose to skip this week’s G20 meeting on the tropical island of Bali altogether. Observers say the […]

China confirms Xi to attend G20 summit, meet Biden

  Beijing, China | AFP | Xi Jinping will attend the G20 summit in Indonesia next week and meet his US counterpart Joe Biden, Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday, in their first in-person talks since the Chinese president sealed a historic third term as leader last month. The two met prior to Biden taking office in January 2021 and have spoken by phone a number of times since then, but the Covid-19 pandemic and […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not go to G20 summit

https://youtu.be/cEj05-XqIbI Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been shunned by the West over his offensive in Ukraine, will not travel to Indonesia for the G20 leaders’ summit next week, officials said Thursday. The Kremlin, which has been mired in a protracted conflict in Ukraine and threatened the West with nuclear weapons, will instead send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Putin may take part in the November 15-16 summit by video link, […]

Midterms offer Biden hope in defeat

  Washington, United States | AFP | by Aurélia END Joe Biden’s Democrats seem to have escaped a feared drubbing in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but it remains to be seen whether that will revive the US president’s flagging fortunes until 2024 — or beyond. The 79-year-old, who framed the race as a clash between defenders of democracy and the “extremist” camp of Donald Trump, spent election night in back-to-back calls with Democrats savoring their wins […]