By AFP - Agence France Presse
G20 summit-Brazil
War in Ukraine and climate impasse loom over G20 summit
On Tuesday, Western powers and Russia blamed each other for a dramatic escalation in the war in Ukraine, which dominated the final day of negotiations at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The two-day meeting ended with an appeal from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the world's most powerful leaders to rescue the stalled UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, calling them a question of the planet's “survival.”
Joe Biden, attending his last summit as US president before handing over power to Donald Trump - a notorious climate skeptic - also called for urgent action.
“History is watching us,” he urged.
But Biden's decision to suddenly reverse key US policy towards Ukraine in his final weeks in office has diverted attention from Brazil's anti-poverty and anti-emissions G20 agenda.
On the eve of the meeting, Biden gave Kiev the green light to use US missiles to strike deep inside Russia for the first time in an apparent response to Moscow's enlistment of North Korean soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
The move prompted the Kremlin to relax its rules on the use of nuclear weapons amid warnings from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was at the G20 that the United States and Russia were “on the brink of a direct military conflict.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized the “irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia,” while French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern about “Russia's bellicose and escalators statements.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the most powerful figure at the G20 given Biden's imminent departure from the White House, used the summit to emphasize that the planet was facing growing “risks and challenges.”
With the clock ticking against the return of an isolationist Trump, the Chinese leader has presented himself as a peacemaker.
His attempts, together with Brazil, to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table have so far been rejected by Kiev.
- 'Irresponsible rhetoric' -
A spokesman for the US National Security Council who traveled with Biden condemned Moscow's nuclear stance as “more of the same irresponsible rhetoric from Russia that we've seen over the last two years.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, said that the increased risks illustrate why he is refusing to give Ukraine the sophisticated Taurus missiles.
But he added that Russia's deployment of North Korean troops in the conflict, which triggered Biden's U-turn on long-range missiles, was “a new escalation that simply cannot be allowed.”
The summit's joint statement on Monday made no mention of Moscow's aggression in the war, saying only that the leaders welcomed “all relevant and constructive initiatives that support a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
The summit statement also prompted the leaders to call for an end to the conflict in the Middle East, where Israel is carrying out offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
- Climate talks - President Lula
President Lula used his role as host of the summit to drum up support for a global campaign against hunger and to try to stimulate the COP29 climate talks, which are stalled in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
“We can't leave the task of Baku to Belém,” said Lula on Tuesday, referring to the Amazonian city that will host the UN climate talks next year.
But a G20 declaration on the subject was not the boost sought by the climate negotiators meeting in Azerbaijan.
While acknowledging the need for trillions of dollars in climate finance for the poorest nations, the leaders did not explicitly mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels.
Lula said next year's conference would be the “last chance” to prevent “irreversible” damage caused by the Earth's warming.
Biden, who has been touting his progress in reducing the use of fossil fuels by the US on a farewell tour of South America that took him to Peru and the Amazon rainforest, told his G20 colleagues: “I urge us to keep the faith and keep moving forward.”
“This is the greatest existential threat to humanity.”
rmb/cb/nro
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