World leaders struggle to agree joint approach to Ukraine

Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) large economies meeting in Bali on Tuesday were struggling to agree a joint statement on Ukraine, with western powers pressing for strong condemnation of Russia. A draft declaration circulating on Tuesday condemned the invasion but acknowledged there were different views among members, according to a number of news organisations at the summit.

The United States, the European Union and their allies want to isolate Russia and increase pressure on Vladimir Putin to withdraw all his forces from Ukraine. But Russia is represented at the summit by foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and other countries, including China, are reluctant to condemn Moscow too harshly.

“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy – constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks,” Bloomberg reported the draft as saying.

The draft adds that there “were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions”. Mr Lavrov said that Ukraine was the obstacle to peace because it “categorically refuses to hold any talks and comes up with conditions obviously unrealistic and inadequate to this situation”.

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During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, China’s President Xi Jinping called for a ceasefire and peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. And the French readout of the meeting said that Mr Xi repeated his warning against the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict.

In his address to the summit, Mr Xi said that the root cause of the current crisis in food and energy security was not production or demand but interrupted supply chains.

“Any attempt to politicize food and energy issues or use them as tools and weapons must be resolutely opposed. Unilateral sanctions must be removed, and restrictions on relevant scientific and technological cooperation must be lifted,” the official Chinese report of his speech said.

[ Russia-Ukraine war: UN accuses both sides of torturing prisoners ]

After his meeting with Mr Macron, Mr Xi met Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, Argentinian president Alberto Fernandez and South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol. Mr Xi’s meeting with Mr Biden on Monday saw the two leaders attempt to stabilise their relationship and to prevent further deterioration.

Mr Xi’s meeting with Mr Albanese was the first between Chinese and Australian leaders since 2016 and both men signalled that they wanted to move beyond the bitter disagreements that had characterised the last few years.

“Australia seeks a stable relationship with China. We have big differences to manage but we’re always going to be better off when we have dialogue and are able to talk constructively and respective but also honestly,” Mr Albanese said after the meeting.

British prime minister Rishi Sunak also softened his government’s rhetoric on China, drawing back from his predecessor Liz Truss’s plan to designate Beijing as a threat. Mr Sunak said he viewed China as a systemic challenge rather than a threat.

“My view on China is straightforward. I think that China unequivocally poses a systemic threat – well, a systemic challenge – to our values, and our interests, and is undoubtedly the biggest state-based threat to our economic security, let me put it that way. That’s how I think about China,” he told reporters at the summit.