Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates trying to replace Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister, has asked the G20 to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from attending meetings until Moscow ends the conflict in Ukraine, according to his spokeswoman.
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the G20 summit in November on the resort island of Bali, according to a longstanding aide to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
“Our G20 partners and allies have a collective responsibility to call Putin’s abhorrent behaviour out. Sitting round a table with him isn’t good enough when he is responsible for children being killed in their beds as they sleep,” Sunak’s spokesman confirmed the statement.
“We need to send a strong message to Putin that he doesn’t have a seat at the table unless and until he stops his illegal war in Ukraine.” Sunak is lagging current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the race to replace Johnson, which ends on September 5.
When asked about her position, Truss’ campaign referred to comments she made in July, when she suggested it would be vital to confront Putin in front of friends such as India and Indonesia. “I would go there, and I would call Putin out,” she said during a televised discussion on July 25.
As G20 president this year, Indonesia has been under pressure from Western countries to rescind its invitation to Putin in response to his country’s invasion of Ukraine, which his government describes as a “special military operation.” The Indonesian government has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the Bali meeting.