Russian President Vladimir Putin could attend the G20 summit in India in September but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said no final decision has been made.
“It cannot be ruled out. But no decision has been made yet. Russia continues its full participation in the G20 format, we intend to continue it,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS and news agency PTI on Monday.
The Russian government was led by foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20 leaders’ forum in Bali, Indonesia during last year’s G20 summit and Vladimir Putin attended the G20 summit held in Rome in 2021 and G20 2020 Riyadh via video link.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit will be held on September 9 and September 10 in New Delhi.
G20 or the Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies who represent around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).
Two major G20 events among several other events were held in the recent months in India. Bengaluru hosted the G20 finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ meetings and New Delhi hosted the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting earlier this year.
Sergei Lavrov, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and foreign ministers of several other countries, including some from non-member countries, attended the summit.
While Covid-19 dominated discussions during G20 summits in 2020 and 2021, the war in Ukraine continued to be the one of the most discussed issues during the meetings. The meetings also showed that India is having to walk the diplomatic tightrope as major powers urge the nation to pick a side while New Delhi remains consistent in its call for peace, diplomacy and dialogue.
Russia and the US on separate occasions during these events held last month hailed the stance India has taken but due to their opposing stance on the issue the both meetings ended without a joint communique due to a bitterly increasing rift between the US-led Western powers and Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
Source: news18