Albanese rules out joining Western leaders in a walkout while Sergei Lavrov addresses G20
Anthony Albanese rules out joining Western leaders in a walkout when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses the G20.
Anthony Albanese has ruled out joining Western leaders in a walkout while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses the G20 in Bali – but will register Australia’s condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision is aimed at supporting Indonesia’s presidency of the G20, and it was warmly welcomed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo as he met the Prime Minister on Monday on the eve of the leaders’ summit.
“I am pleased to hear from my Foreign Minister that Australia has really supported the G20 summit here,” Mr Widodo told Mr Albanese as they met on the sidelines of the B20 business leaders’ meeting, where the two leaders gave the keynote closing addresses.
Indonesia has had to work hard to keep the G20 on track amid an earlier threat by G7 countries to boycott the summit over Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is now threatening the food and energy security of the world’s emerging and poorest economies.
Mr Widodo struck a compromise by inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the summit via video. But the global food and energy crisis is becoming so acute that Mr Widodo – a domestically focused leader not known for international statecraft – made an unsuccessful attempt to broker peace talks between the two countries during a trip to Europe in July. Australian officials have been working behind the scenes in Bali’s resort precinct of Nusa Dua to help the host nation try to negotiate the wording of a joint G20 leaders’ statement that would be acceptable to all G20 delegates and that also hammers out a co-ordinated approach to tackling inflation.
A consensus appears unlikely, however, with Russia and China again rejecting Western leaders’ demands for a statement condemning Russia’s war on Ukraine.
In deference to his Indonesian host, Mr Albanese ruled out joining any leaders in a walkout while Mr Lavrov – who is standing in for Mr Putin – delivers his address.
Mr Albanese landed in Bali, declaring “I’m here to give support to President Widodo and I look forward to a successful summit”, reiterating his loyalty to the host nation as he did after his election win when he became one of the first Western leaders to say he would attend the summit whether Mr Putin was there or not.
During their talks, the two leaders met with 10 recipients of a new G20 scholarship that Mr Albanese announced during his first visit to Jakarta as leader in June.
They also oversaw the signing of a new business partnership between the Business Council of Australia and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry aimed at breathing life back into a bilateral free-trade agreement that came into force in 2020 but has faltered during the pandemic years.
The memorandum of understanding between the two peak business bodies follows the weekend announcement that former Macquarie Bank chief executive Nicholas Moore will be the government’s new Southeast Asia envoy, tasked with drafting a plan for expanding regional bilateral trade and investment.
Mr Albanese, who was joined in the meeting by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, has made it a priority to deepen trade and investment with the region, particularly Indonesia which is set to become the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2030.
BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the MOU would give Australian businesses priority access to Southeast Asia’s largest market, where opportunities in sectors such as education, energy and agriculture provide plentiful opportunities.
“The trade agreement is a critical framework, whereas this MOU mobilises the businesses that drive projects and investment,” she said.
“It’s also about building deeper and lasting relationships for businesses, and it comes at a time of unprecedented opportunities for Australian businesses in Indonesia – but they will only be realised if there are structures to bring people together. That’s the purpose of the MOU – bringing together the two premier business organisations of our nations.”
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