Vladimir Putin gets Chinese support to secure his seat in G20

Certain members requested that Russia should be expelled from the organization.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to join the next G20 summit in Indonesia later this year, and he won significant support from Beijing on Wednesday, against certain members’ requests that Russia should be expelled from the organization.

According to a report by Reuters, the United States and its Western allies are debating whether Russia should remain a member of the Group of Twenty major countries following its invasion of Ukraine. Any decision to expel Russia, however, would almost certainly be opposed by others in the group, raising the potential of some nations instead of boycotting G20 meetings, according to the reports.

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According to Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia, which now has the rotating G20 chair, Putin plans to attend the G20 conference in November on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali. “It will depend on many, many things, including the COVID situation, which is getting better. So far, his intention is… he wants to,” Ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva said in a news conference.

When asked about the possibility of Russia being pulled out of the G20, she stated that it was a venue for discussing economic matters, not a crisis such as Ukraine. China, which has not criticized Russia’s incursion and has opposed Western sanctions, praised Moscow on Wednesday, describing it as an “important member” of the G20.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, the G20 is a body that has to find solutions to crucial concerns including economic recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak. “No member has the right to remove another country as a member. The G20 should implement real multilateralism, strengthen unity and cooperation,” he told a news briefing.