Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov arrives for the G20 leaders meeting in Rome, Italy, October 30, 2021. REUTERS / Guglielmo Mangiapane // File Photo
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WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) – Western nations are preparing to organize coordinated walks and other diplomatic disregards to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington on Wednesday, their officials said.
While some in Western capitals have argued that Russia’s actions should mean it is completely excluded from global meetings, this is not an opinion shared by others in the Group of 20 major economies, including China and Indonesia, which holds the presidency. the band this year.
Moscow confirmed on Tuesday that Finance Minister Anton Siluanov would lead the Russian delegation to the talks, despite repeated protests by Western diplomats that they could not continue as usual during a war in which thousands of civilians were killed in bombings by Russian troops.
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“During and after the meeting, we will be sure to send a strong message and we will not be alone in this,” said a German government source, accusing Russia of starting a conflict that has also halted world food prices. and energy.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to avoid the G20 sessions, which are joined by Russian officials on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But Yellen will attend an inaugural session on the war in Ukraine, despite Russian involvement, a US Treasury Department official said.
British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak will also not attend certain G20 sessions, a British government source told Reuters. Read more
Meanwhile, an employee of the French Ministry of Finance was expecting some ministers from the Group of Seven to leave their seats when their Russian counterpart had to speak.
RISK OF UNDERSTANDING.
Disagreements deepened by the war in Ukraine raise questions about the future of the G20 as the world’s leading forum for economic policy.
Conceived as a platform for the richest and most emerging economies to work together to recover from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the G20 has since looked at everything from global tax reform to pandemic debt relief and the fight against climate change, with uneven experience of success.
“The G20 is at risk of disintegration and is incredibly important this week,” said Josh Lipsky, director of the Atlantic Council’s Geoeconomic Center and a former IMF adviser.
If Western democracies allow the group to wither in favor of the G7 or other groups, it will cede significant economic influence to China, Lipsky said.
“Russia can agree with China, and I think that’s a good result from Russia’s point of view, and it actually gives them more influence than they have in a body like the G20,” he said.
Both the French and German officials said there would be no agreed communiqué at the end of the meeting, which was originally intended to discuss the state of the world economy and coordinate the vaccine and other pandemic efforts.
In addition to the G7 countries – the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and Italy – the G20 includes emerging economies, including China, India and Brazil, which have radically different views on how the global economy should work. .
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fact that some G20 countries have chosen not to follow Western sanctions against Russia are just the latest challenge to efforts to build a global set of trade and finance rules.
The United States and China have long exchanged accusations of protectionism, while the fact that world trade is growing slower than the world economy as a whole has raised questions about the future of globalization.
Ahead of the G20 summit, a senior IMF official warned of the risk of fragmentation of the world economy.
“One scenario is that we split blocks that do not trade much with each other, which are of different standards, and that would be a disaster for the world economy,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gurinchas told reporters.
Separately, the Fund cut its forecast for global economic growth by almost a full percentage point, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine, but warned that inflation was a “clear and current threat” to many countries. Read more
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Additional reports by Christian Kramer in Berlin and Lee Thomas in Paris; Written by Mark John, edited by William McLean and Andrea Richie
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