In the last row and all smiles. A “family photo” did take place on the first day of the G20 summit, Monday November 18 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), in the presence of Sergei Lavrov, the head of Russian diplomacy.
For two years and the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow, the leaders of the twenty main economies on the planet have avoided appearing in the company of Vladimir Putin's representative. This time, the Brazilian presidency used a subterfuge to bring everyone together, not under the official banner of the G20, but in the name of the Alliance against Hunger, President Lula's major priority for the occasion. French President Emmanuel Macron even took advantage of the moment to shake hands, without speaking to him, with the head of Russian diplomacy. For the record, a second photo was taken on Tuesday, without Sergei Lavrov this time, but with the American president, Joe Biden, detained the day before.
President Lula will have done everything to avoid a fight over Ukraine, so as not to further widen the gap, deeper every day as the conflict turns to Moscow's advantage, between the West and the emerging states of the South. , China in the lead. In session, he did not hesitate, Monday, to interrupt – “brutally” according to a European official –, the debates on the draft conclusions. But in reality, the war has continued to weigh on discussions, whether it concerns the risks of conflagration in the Middle East, but especially the conflict between Moscow and kyiv.
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And for good reason: before the summit, Russia increased the bombings against Ukrainian infrastructure and cities. And two days after obtaining the green light from Joe Biden, Ukraine carried out, on Tuesday November 19, the first strikes using American missiles on military targets located on Russian territory. “We will view this as a new phase in the Western war against Russia and respond accordingly”declared Mr. Lavrov afterwards. Then he suggested that kyiv's allies read “the whole” of the new Russian doctrine, unveiled the same morning, to expand the possibility of using atomic weapons against a non-nuclear State aided by a nuclear power.
“This will not dissuade us from supporting Ukraine”commented the head of the British government, Keir Starmer, from Rio, criticizing a “irresponsible rhetoric” from Moscow. Mr. Macron denounced “escalatory posture” of Russia, which he mentioned Tuesday morning during an interview with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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