Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, intervened yesterday in the virtual summit of G20 leaders, whose main peculiarity was the participation of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, for the first time since the beginning of the invasion of Russia, in February 2022.
During his speech, Sánchez urged to “fulfill the commitments of the New Delhi Declaration”. He also “strongly condemned Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”, defended “a just and lasting peace, based on the UN Charter and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” and called for continued support for Ukraine.
At the previous summit, held a year ago in the Indian capital and attended by Pedro Sánchez (and at which Russia was represented by its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov), the G2o0 leaders adopted a Joint Declaration in which they deplored “in the strongest terms the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” and demanded “its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine”. Likewise, all countries, including Russia, qualified as “inadmissible” the “use of nuclear weapons or even the threat to use them”.
Sánchez also defended the strengthening and improvement of the international financial system and advocated urgently addressing the climate emergency. In this sense, he stated that a solid and balanced package should be agreed at the next COP28 based on three interconnected pillars: meeting the 100 billion a year financing target, doubling financing for climate adaptation and reaching the maximum global emissions forecast for 2025 and reducing them by 43% by 2030 through renewable energies to achieve the 1.5 degree target.
The aim of yesterday’s summit was to review progress since the last G20 meeting, which took place last September in New Delhi. It is the last summit organized by India, which will hand over the G20 presidency to Brazil on December 1.
Vladimir Putin participated yesterday by videoconference, as did the other leaders. The Russian president did not attend the two previous G20 presidential meetings, held in Bali (Indonesia) in 2022 and in September this year in India. Apart from the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, as host, representatives of more than 35 states and international organizations, such as the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres; the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio da Silva; the French President, Emmanuel Macron; or the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, also took part. On the other hand, neither the President of the United States, Joe Biden, nor the President of China, Xi Jinping (who was represented by the Prime Minister, Li Qiang, as in September) took part.
During his speech (broadcast on Russian public television), Putin referred to the war in Ukraine: “Military actions are always a tragedy for individual people and families, and for the country as a whole.” “Undoubtedly, we must think about how to stop this tragedy,” added the Russian president, who assured that Moscow has “never” refused to enter into peace negotiations with Ukraine and that it was the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, who banned, by decree, dialogue with Russia to end the war.
In response to these words, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, declared at a press conference that “Vladimir Putin has it very easy: if he wants to stop this tragedy, he has only to tell his troops to leave the territory of Ukraine and this tragedy, which has only been caused by him, will end”.
