G20 leaders fall short on billionaire tax and Ukraine
G20 leaders fell well short of their goals on poverty, climate change and the conflict in Ukraine, as the spectre of Donald Trump caused some to lose their nerve.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did his best to condemn Russia’s “illegal and immoral” invasion of Ukraine at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
But in the end, the world’s premier forum for economic cooperation settled for a watered-down statement on Ukraine, just like last year in New Delhi, failing to even name Russia. The result shows that despite the best efforts of Australia, Britain and the United States to insert stronger language, Russia and China were able to block it.
The G20 joint leaders declaration contained a much stronger statement on the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, emphasising the “urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance” and affirming the “Palestinian right to self-determination”.
It came on the same day that Vladimir Putin updated his country’s nuclear doctrine stipulating that it will consider aggression from any non-nuclear state, if aided by a nuclear country, a joint attack on Russia. This was in response to Ukraine reportedly firing long-range missiles into the Russian region of Bryansk on Tuesday morning, a day after US President Joe Biden granted permission for the country to do so.
