The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday concluded his participation in the G20 Summit in Bali (Indonesia), which included an emergency meeting between EU and NATO member states to condemn Russia’s bombings in Ukraine and show their support and solidarity with Poland, while the events that led to the death of two Polish citizens in the early hours of the previous morning are being investigated.
“Early this morning we participated in an emergency meeting between the members of the G20 who are partners, are allies of the European Union and also of NATO, and we have agreed to issue a joint communiqué condemning Russia’s bombing of cities, of strategic infrastructure in Ukraine, which has been perpetrated precisely when we were at the G20 summit talking about how to achieve peace in this conflict,” Sanchez said at the press conference following the Summit. This bombing, “if it clearly demonstrates anything, it is the contempt that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has for international organizations, for the multilateral system as a whole”, he added.
Likewise, Sánchez continued, the communiqué also shows its “expression of support and solidarity with Poland, while the facts that have caused the death of two Polish citizens are being investigated”, and “of support and solidarity with Ukraine and with the Ukrainian people in the face of the war of aggression they have been suffering since last February”.
“We have agreed, also, that we will continue to coordinate to address in the next steps, and expressed also within the Chamber that the unity of the European Union and NATO in relation to this war remains our main strength,” he continued. Regarding what happened in Poland, Pedro Sánchez warned that “what we have to do together is, and I intend to do it with my statements, is not to contribute to any kind of escalation”. “That is why I have said that the most important thing now is to know what the outcome of the investigation is,” he added.
Declaration
On the other hand, Pedro Sánchez highlighted the importance of the Declaration agreed by the G20 at the end of the Summit -which took place on November 15 and 16- because “it reflects the unequivocal condemnation by the vast majority of countries gathered here of Putin’s unjustified war of aggression, as well as the realization that Russia, with its actions, is the great cause of the food and energy crisis we are experiencing”. “A majority of members roundly condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the immense suffering that this war has been causing since last February,” he added.
Specifically, the Declaration “deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine”. “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,” the text continued. “There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions,” the statement admits.
On the other hand, Sánchez also highlighted “very specially the affirmation subscribed by all the countries, including the Russian Federation, that the use of nuclear weapons or even the threat of using them is inadmissible”, something that “is very important for the tranquility of our societies as a whole” and that “can help to generate certainty from an eminently economic forum such as the G20”. Russia was represented at the Summit by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serguei Lavrov.
The Declaration also addresses major global challenges such as food security, energy security, climate change, pandemics and global health, as well as the economic problems caused or aggravated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, gender equality and migration. In this regard, Pedro Sanchez said that “the voice of Spain has been present in this forum and in all preparatory meetings to demand an end to the war in Ukraine, peace and to reject the use of nuclear weapons” and to “solve, ultimately, the food crisis” and promote “the ecological transition of the economy, the empowerment of women and real and effective equality between men and women”.
Xi and Biden
During the course of the Summit, Pedro Sánchez held a formal bilateral meeting with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, and an informal, non-bilateral conversation with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, with whom he also coincided in the emergency meeting of the EU and NATO.
The leaders of the two great powers met in Bali just before the start of the G20 Summit. “I think it was very good news that at the beginning of the G20 there was a bilateral summit between President Biden and President Xi,” said Pedro Sánchez at the press conference. “It has been an extraordinary help for a difficult summit in a very complex context, with very distant positions, particularly the one that the majority has regarding Putin and his war in Ukraine, has contributed to the fact that we can have a consensual Declaration” in which “it is said that there is a majority of countries against what Putin is doing in Ukraine and there is unanimity in relation to neither using nor warning that nuclear weapons will be used as an instrument of war”, he continued.
