Rishi Sunak arrives in Bali for G20 summit dominated by tension over Ukraine

PM has vowed to ‘call out’ Russian aggression in encounter with Putin’s foreign minister

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a ‘huddle’ press conference with political journalists on board a Government plane as he heads to Bali to attend the G20 summit (Leon Neal/PA) (PA Wire)

Rishi Sunak has arrived in Indonesia for a summit of the world’s most powerful economies which is expected to be dominated by tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With Vladimir Putin dodging the annual G20 leaders’ gathering, the prime minister has vowed to confront his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov when the pair come face to face round the conference table.

Mr Lavrov was reported to have been taken into hospital shortly after arrival at the summit venue in beach resort Bali, but he later posted footage of himself on social media, relaxing in T-shirt and shorts at his hotel and apparently healthy.

The G20 is the second international summit attended by Mr Sunak in a hectic three weeks since becoming PM, following the COP27 talks in Egypt last week. He left the UK on Sunday afternoon for the 18-hour flight to the south east Asian archipelago state shortly after attending the Rembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph.

He was greeted on the tarmac at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport by a troupe of traditional dancers.

He had been hoping to add a visit to Japan onto the end of the trip, but was forced to ditch the idea in order to come back to London for Jeremy Hunt’s crucial autumn statement on Thursday.

As well as attending round-table sessions on energy, food supplies and digital issues, Mr Sunak will hold his first meeting with US president Joe Biden as well as face-to-face talks with Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, India’s president Narendra Modi and Australia’s Anthony Albanese.

More controversially, he will sit down for talks with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to be implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Discussions are likely to focus on stepping up oil and gas production in response to the disruption of supplies from Russia.

The Ukraine war will dominate the two-day gathering, with Western nations maintaining a united front in condemnation of Russian aggression, while all eyes will be on Mr Modi and China’s Xi Jinping for signs that they are shifting their more neutral stance towards Moscow.

Leaving China for the first time since the Covid pandemic, Xi held high-profile talks with Mr Biden on Monday, with tension over Taiwan likely to top the agenda, alongside Ukraine and trade.

The world’s two most powerful leaders smiled and shook hands in front of a row of Chinese and US flags at a luxury hotel on Bali’s Nusa Dua bay.

Mr Xi said he was ready for a “candid and in-depth” conversation and believed the leaders should “chart the right course” and find the right direction for bilateral ties and “elevate their relationship”.

Mr Biden said: “As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the US can manage our differences, prevent competition from ... turning into conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation.”

Downing Street said the PM would use the summit as an opportunity to “call out Putin’s barbarism and force Russia to confront the global suffering caused by this senseless campaign of violence”.

He will tell Lavrov that Russia will have “no place at the top table” while the invasion continues, said aides.

The annual summit comes with Putin’s invasion in disarray after the Russian withdrawal from Kherson, the only provincial capital they managed to seize in their assault on Ukraine.

But agreement will be all but impossible to achieve due to Russia’s effective veto on decision-making by the G20 forum, made up of the world’s 19 most powerful national economies and the European Union.

With Russia certain to block agreement on energy or food – both being used by Moscow as effective weapons in the Ukraine conflict – it is understood that the two-day gathering will end without the usual communique setting out joint plans for action.