Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov arrives for the G20 summit in Rome, Italy, October 30, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane//File Photo
WASHINGTON, April 19 – Western nations are preparing to stage coordinated strikes and other diplomatic snubs at Wednesday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, their officials said.
While some in Western capitals argue that Russia’s actions should result in its being barred from global meetings, that view is echoed by others in the Group of 20 major economies, notably China and Indonesia, which chair the group this year lead, not shared.
Moscow confirmed on Tuesday that Finance Minister Anton Siluanov would lead the Russian delegation at the talks, despite repeated protests from Western diplomats that they could not carry on as usual during a war that has killed thousands of civilians in bombardments by Russian troops.
“During and after the meeting, we will certainly send a strong message, and we will not be alone in this,” said a German government source, accusing Russia of sparking a conflict that has also impacted global food and energy prices has driven up.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to avoid G20 meetings attended by Russian officials on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. But Yellen will attend an opening session on the Ukraine war regardless of Russian involvement, a US Treasury Department official said.
UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak will also not attend certain G20 meetings, a UK government source told Reuters. Continue reading
And an official at France’s finance ministry, meanwhile, expected some ministers from the Group of Seven nations to leave their seats if their Russian counterpart were to speak.
RISK OF UNTANGLING
The divisions, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, raise questions about the future of the G20 as the world’s premier economic policy forum.
Designed as a platform for the largest wealthy economies and developing countries to work together on recovery efforts during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the G20 has since touched on everything from global tax reform to pandemic debt relief to fighting climate change, with a patchy record of success.
“The G20 is at risk of falling apart and this week is incredibly important,” said Josh Lipsky, director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and a former IMF adviser.
Should Western democracies allow the group to wither away in favor of the G7 or other factions, it would cede significant economic clout to China, Lipsky said.
“Russia can join China and I think that’s a good result from a Russian point of view and actually gives them more leverage 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 a meeting originally set to discuss the state of the world economy and coordinate vaccine and other pandemic efforts.
In addition to the G7 countries – the United States, Canada, Japan, the UK, France, Germany and Italy – the G20 also includes emerging economies like China, India and Brazil, which have wildly 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 is just the latest challenge to efforts to create a global trade and finance rulebook.
The United States and China have long traded accusations of protectionism, while the fact that global trade is growing at a slower pace than the global economy as a whole raises questions about the future of globalization.
Ahead of the G20 meeting, a senior IMF official warned of the risk of fragmentation in the global economy.
“One scenario is one where we have split blocs that don’t trade much with each other, that have different standards, and that would be catastrophic for the global economy,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters.
Separately, the fund cut its forecast for global economic growth by nearly a full percentage point, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and saying the inflation warning is a “clear and present danger” for many countries. Continue reading
Additional reporting by Christian Kraemer in Berlin and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Writing by Mark John, editing by William Maclean and Andrea Ricci