Category Archives: G20

Australia ‘horrified’ by Gaza humanitarian catastrophe – as it happened

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Both sides of politics are pulling out all the stops as the Dunkley byelection goes down to the wire.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, the education minister, Jason Clare, and the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, went head-to-head over a tweet she published last night.

You should delete the tweet… This is a classic example of why women aren’t joining the Liberal party and why they’re not voting for the Liberal party, because of that classic, desperate, grubby political scare campaign we saw from the Liberal party yesterday.

I don’t know, really, you must wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, after 25 years of being a member of parliament, is this what I’ve become? I’m reduced to putting out tweets like this?

Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said.

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Visualised: how all of G20 is missing climate goals — but some nations are closer than others

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As world leaders gather at Cop28, these charts show how far away the major economies are from their targets

Not a single G20 country has policies in place that are consistent with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C and meeting their “fair share” of emissions reduction.

The assessment, based on data up to 5 December provided by the Climate Action Tracker, comes as leaders gather in Dubai for the Cop28 conference.

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Lula backpedals on suggestion Putin could attend G20 without fear of arrest

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Comments were at odds with Brazil foreign minister’s statement that Putin could face ‘issues’ if he traveled to any ICC member state

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has rowed back on comments suggesting Vladimir Putin would be able to attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest.

The international criminal court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the Russian leader’s arrest for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and, as a signatory of the Rome statute, Brazil is duty-bound to cooperate with the court. But on Saturday Lula raised eyebrows by telling an Indian interviewer there was “no reason” Putin would be detained if he travelled to the November 2024 summit in Brazil.

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Canada PM Justin Trudeau stuck in India after plane breaks down

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Canadian PM was due to return home on Sunday after G20 summit in Delhi but a mechanical fault kept him in India overnight

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his entire delegation have been forced to extend their stay in New Delhi for the G20 summit by an extra day after his aircraft broke down, Canadian officials confirmed.

Trudeau arrived in India for the meeting of the leaders of 20 leading economies on Friday.

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Sunak refuses to make pensions triple lock election commitment

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PM says he will not speculate over policy as he grapples with how to fund tax cuts demanded by Tory MPs

Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to keeping the pensions triple lock in the next Conservative manifesto, as he grapples with how to fund tax cuts demanded by his own MPs.

The prime minister told reporters during the G20 summit in Delhi that the triple lock – which guarantees that pensions will rise by at least 2.5%, and by either inflation or earnings if they are higher – remains government policy.

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Russian minister says G20 summit a success after criticism over war blocked

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Language on invasion of Ukraine noticeably softened compared with statement after last year’s summit

Russia’s foreign minister has hailed the G20 summit in Delhi as a success, after Moscow was shielded from criticism over the Ukraine war in a joint declaration.

“We were able to prevent the west’s attempts to Ukrainise the summit agenda,” Sergei Lavrov said as the two-day meeting drew to a close.

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Lula says Putin can attend next year’s G20 in Rio without fear of arrest

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Brazil’s president, now the group’s leader, says his Russian counterpart is welcome at 2024 event

Vladimir Putin can attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said as he took leadership of the forum.

Speaking at this year’s meeting in Delhi, Lula – who has controversially tried to position himself as a peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv – said the Russian president would be welcome to attend the November 2024 event.

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Watered-down G20 statement on Ukraine is sign of India’s growing influence

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Joe Biden’s need to nurture alliances to contain China sees Ukraine perceptibly slipping down list of priorities

It took exhausted Indian diplomats 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts, but in the end the G20 countries reached a consensus declaration on the war in Ukraine – one that largely retreated into generalised principles rather than the specific condemnation of Russia that the same group of leaders agreed when they met in Bali a year ago.

Moreover, no invitation was extended to Ukrainie’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to address the gathering, meaning the only direct combatant around the table was Russia, represented by its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

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Pasta, risotto, ravioli – humble millet parades its versatility in Delhi for G20

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The neglected but sustainable cereal crop is on every hotel menu in town as India’s government tries to spark a global craze

As the leaders of the world’s largest economies descended on Delhi this weekend, there were two things on the menu: geopolitics and millet.

India is seeking to use its G20 presidency to push a narrative of the country as an economic powerhouse and leader of the global south, but also as a platform to elevate humble millet, a long-neglected but environmentally sustainable cereal that the country’s government is on a campaign to promote. Having already persuaded the UN General Assembly to declare this year as “international year of millet”, on Saturday the foreign leaders were treated to a specially curated summit lunch designed to show that millet is undeserving of its lowly reputation.

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Anthony Albanese pushes to finalise EU trade deal by end of year during talks on sidelines of G20

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Discussions had reached an impasse over the use of geographical indicators for products such as prosecco and feta

The prime minister says there have been positive signs in long-stalled negotiations over a free-trade deal between Australia and the European Union.

Anthony Albanese held talks with European leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, with time running out for the deal to be finalised by the end of the year.

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Albanese pushes for EU free-trade agreement settlement by end of the year – as it happened

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Talks on deal had been stalled due to impasse on geographic indicators for products such as feta and prosecco. This blog is closed for now

Asked what a no vote will say about Australia, Pearson says he withhold judgement until the night of the referendum.

I will make that judgement the day after the referendum. I believe we still have the capacity to do the right thing. I tell you one thing, though, I just don’t believe when the hand of friendship and reconciliation is extended from Indigenous people that at the end of the day, their love will be unrequited. I can’t believe that. I cannot believe we’re still in an Australia where that hand would be just slapped aside. This unrequited love is my worst nightmare. I just don’t believe Australians are capable of that at this time in our history.

The separation was there in 1901. The original separation, the original equality was in our constitution in 1901. What we’re going to do in 2023 is fix that exclusion, fix the omission, fix the lack of recognition and when we do that, our constitution will be whole. We will complete the commonwealth of Australia and it will be a great thing to do.

In relation to the scope issue, David, our opponents in the no campaign said that somehow we’d be dictating policy on nuclear submarines. That wasn’t reasonable. That wasn’t a fair representation of the scope.

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Rishi Sunak tells G20: UK will resist ‘hair shirt’ policies on net zero pledge

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The prime minister suggested to the summit that he wanted to limit the impact of green measures on British consumers

Read more: Rishi who? Sunak slips down pecking order in scramble to court India

Rishi Sunak has said he will resist “hair shirt” policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and achieve Britain’s net zero pledge, amid an intensifying Tory row over the party’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Tensions have been growing within the party all summer over its green policies, with some cabinet figures and the right of the party calling for a rethink on measures such as the phasing out of gas boilers and the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The prime minister has also backed “maxing out” oil and gas reserves.

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G20: EU and US back trade corridor linking Europe, Middle East and India

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Joe Biden describes ambitious rail and sea plan to counter China’s Belt and Road project as a ‘really big deal’

The US and the EU have backed an ambitious plan to build an economic corridor linking Europe with the Middle East and India via rail and sea, a project the US president, Joe Biden, described as a “really big deal”.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the project during a Saturday afternoon session at the G20 leaders’ summit, being held in Delhi this weekend.

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‘Warm and productive’: Sunak positive after talks with Modi at G20

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UK PM meets Indian counterpart on fringes of summit to discuss cooperation on trade, education, research and defence – but not Ukraine

Rishi Sunak and Narendra Modi met on Saturday for what the British prime minister called a “very warm and productive discussion” covering everything from trade to cooperation on education, research and defence.

Sunak met his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, saying afterwards he was confident they could “work through” the remaining hurdles standing in the way of a free trade agreement.

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African Union made permanent member of G20 at Delhi summit

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Continent’s leaders welcome the move, which gives the AU the same status as the European Union

The African Union has been made a permanent member of the G20.

In his opening remarks to the group’s summit in Delhi on Saturday, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, invited the continental body, represented by its chair, Azali Assoumani, to take a seat at the table of G20 leaders as a permanent member.

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Biden renews effort to woo India’s Modi in talks before G20 summit

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Meeting in Delhi overshadowed by press freedom questions as US journalists kept away

Joe Biden took fresh steps on Friday to lure India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, into an alliance designed to contain China, at a bilateral meeting in Delhi where the pair struck a series of commercial and defence deals covering remote-controlled aircraft, semiconductors and quantum computing.

However, the question of press freedom also dominated the agenda on the eve of the full G20 summit as journalists were blocked from covering the event. Before the bilateral at the prime minister’s residence, the US press corps, used to being given privileged access to the president, were told to remain outside in a van, out of eyesight of the two leaders.

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Mark Meadows loses bid to transfer Georgia election interference case to federal court – as it happened

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Meadows faces two felony charges, including racketeering and solicitation of a violation of oath by a public officer

Lindsey Graham’s name appeared early as Donald Trump’s attempts to stay in the White House began shortly after his re-election defeat in November 2020.

Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger told the press that the South Carolina senator had called him to ask if it was possible to throw away mail-in ballots in counties crucial to Joe Biden’s win in Georgia. From the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino’s report at the time:

Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.

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Rishi Sunak ready to discuss corporate visas deal with India, No 10 suggests

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PM travels to Delhi for G20 summit this weekend and is likely to discuss trade agreement with Narendra Modi

Rishi Sunak is willing to discuss corporate visas as part of a trade negotiation with India, Downing Street officials have indicated, as he flies to Delhi this weekend hoping to lay the groundwork for an agreement later this year.

Sunak lands in Delhi on Friday for the weekend’s G20 summit of world leaders, but will begin his trip with a key meeting with Narendra Modi at which officials say the two prime ministers are likely to discuss the sensitive subject of the prospective trade deal.

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Rishi Sunak to urge Narendra Modi to take stronger stance on Russia

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Two prime ministers to meet before G20 summit as India continues to import Russian oil and weapons

Rishi Sunak will use a meeting with Narendra Modi in Delhi to push the Indian prime minister to take a tougher stance towards Russia, Downing Street has said.

The two prime ministers will meet this weekend before the G20 summit in the Indian capital, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be discussed in front of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, told Modi a week ago he would not attend.

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G20: battle for influence as US seeks to rival China in the global south

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There will be pressure on rich countries to fulfil a commitment to provide climate finance to poorer nations

The run-up to this weekend’s G20 summit in Delhi has largely been dominated by two issues: the host’s efforts to project India as a superpower; and the intriguing decision of Xi Jinping not to attend. The substance of what world leaders will discuss during their two days together has struggled to surface.

Yet this year’s G20 – the 24th since the format was inaugurated in 1999 – is potentially a make or break moment for the organisation that includes the world’s 19 wealthiest nations plus the European Union as a bloc. With one part of the world increasingly gathering in the now expanded Brics format where China has a leading role, and the west comfortable with its annual G7 summitry, the G20 is the best remaining hope of keeping the principle of multilateralism alive. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, spoke on Thursday of a real risk of fragmentation of the world order, while his own organisation is paralysed by the war in Ukraine.

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