“It is now time,” said the Ukrainian president, in a videoconferencing discourse at the opening of the summit which is held in Bali.
Le Monde with AFP
“I am convinced that it is now time that the destructive war of Russia must and can be arrested”: the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed, Tuesday, September 15, to the chiefs of State and government of the G20 gathered in Bali, Indonesia.
During his intervention by closed visioconferencing at the opening of the summit, Mr. Zelensky also denounced “crazy threats to use nuclear weapons” of Russia, saying that there could be “there No excuse for nuclear blackmail “. According to the translation of his speech in English consulted by the agency France-Presse (AFP), the Ukrainian president said he contacts the countries of “G19”, in fact excluding Russia.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is the great absent of the largest gathering of world leaders since the start of the Cavid-19 pandemic. He is represented by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov.
During his video intervention, Mr. Zelensky also pleaded for an extension of the agreement allowing to export Ukrainian cereals, which matches Friday. “Our initiative for cereal exports deserves to be prolonged indefinitely, whatever the war ends.”
He also proposed that the agreement negotiated in July under the aegis of Turkey, which made it possible to deliver some 10 million tonnes of cereals, be extended to two other Ukrainian ports.
The risk of a “new cold war”
The invasion of Ukraine does not appear at the official G20 agenda but it dominates the meeting, after nine months of a deadly war with the heavy economic consequences for the planet. It digs the divisions between Westerners supporting kyiv and other countries, China in mind, who refuse to condemn Moscow.
During his inaugural speech, the host of the summit, Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, called on the G20 to “end the war”, warning the risk of a “new cold war”.
“Being responsible also means that we have to end the war,” he said, urging participants to “not divide the world into several camps”.
The Indonesian president insisted on the responsibility of the G20 countries in the face of the crises that the world is going through. “The eyes of the whole world are on us, he insisted. We must not fail.”