Vladimir Putin has decided to skip this week’s meeting of G20 leaders in Bali. But the Russian president and his war against Ukraine, which has deeply divided the world’s biggest economies and sparked myriad global crises, will nonetheless dominate proceedings.
The leaders of the majority of the world’s most powerful nations arrive in Indonesia ahead of Tuesday’s summit opening united by fears over runaway inflation, instability and food and energy shortages, but riven by disagreements over the war, its perpetrator and how the conflict should end.
China and India, the world’s most populous countries and two of its six largest economies, have not condemned Putin and his annexation of swaths of eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile other G20 members such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey have rebuffed western demands to punish Russia for its invasion.