Joe Biden will not attend India’s virtual G20 summit tomorrow Wladimir Putin. He will be replaced by the US Treasury Secretary Yanet Yellen, a White House source confirmed to ANSA, without providing a statement. The official pretext appears to be the holiday that the president will spend between today and Sunday with his family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, also to celebrate his 81st birthday.
“With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we are not sure whether the president will be able to attend the virtual summit,” Eric Garcetti, the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi, said on Monday, referring to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday , where America stops .
However, since there are no logistical problems (the commander-in-chief can connect from anywhere under secure conditions), it seems to some observers like a political decision. A slap in the face to the tsar for not legitimizing him on the international stage for the first time after the invasion of Ukraine. However, the decision breaks the Western Front as all other heads of state and government will be present, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who will arrive from Germany as part of her mission to Germany.
The Kremlin is aware of the situation and knows that this is a victory, a revenge, a customs clearance. And he has already announced that Putin will outline Russia’s position on what he says is a “deeply unstable world situation.” He is probably talking about both the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. Russian propaganda has already begun to drum up the drum, pointing out that this is the “first event in a long time” involving both the tsar and Western leaders. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s presence is still in question, but he attended the Brics Middle East summit today along with Putin.
Biden personally attended the G20 summit in New Delhi in September, while both Xi and Putin were absent (due to an international arrest warrant for war crimes). Therefore, he does not consider non-participation in this virtual encore requested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an insult, as he continues to maintain an ambiguous equidistant position between Washington (with an anti-Chinese alliance) and Moscow (on which it depends for military and energy supplies). At the previous G20 summit, Indonesia, the changing president, did not invite the Russian president.
It remains to be seen how Western leaders, orphans of the American leader, will behave towards the Kremlin chief. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has already expected that Putin “will have to expect a negative verdict on the aggression against Ukraine” at the G20 summit. “It’s not about rehabilitation, Russia is part of the G20. Certainly,” continued Tajani, “we all view Russia as a country that has violated international law, committed a series of war crimes in Ukraine and must respond to them.” There is also an international arrest warrant against Putin. The political judgment is what it is and remains, whether present or absent at the G20.”
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