Dark storm clouds overshadowed a G20 summit in paradise

Black storm clouds hung over Bali for much of this week’s G20 summit, periodically unleashing spectacular torrents of rain onto the holiday paradise isle that sent delegates scurrying for cover.

But they were not as dark as the metaphorical cloud which cast a pall over the annual gathering of world leaders, held for the first time with one of its members engaged in what most of the others regard as an illegal and immoral invasion.

Even before a stray missile landed on the territory of Nato member Poland, briefly raising the spectre of a direct military stand-off between the Western alliance and Moscow, the war in Ukraine had totally dominated the summit.

Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had hoped that the Land of Smiles would provide a suitably optimistic backdrop for what he planned as a forum for agreement on the world’s road to recovery from the Covid pandemic.

But the ongoing carnage in Ukraine imposed a grim mood on the summit, its highpoint a succession of leaders lining up on the first morning to issue stern condemnations of Russia’s invasion to Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister and chief henchman Sergei Lavrov, sitting impassively at the conference table like a very much unwanted guest.

Lavrov was forced to sit through a video address from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who told delegates it would be “a while longer” before his heroic troops finally boot the Russian aggressors out of their homeland.

To Rishi Sunak’s denunciation of the “barbaric” assault, Lavrov responded with a bizarre rant asking how Britain would react if the English language was banned in Ireland, in an apparent attempt to cast Putin’s brutal war as an effort to protect the Russian speakers of eastern Ukraine.

Questions were raised over the impact the pressure of global condemnation is having on Lavrov’s health after he was reportedly twice rushed to hospital with heart complaints.

But Putin’s sidekick dismissed reports of his illness as a “political game” by his enemies, releasing a video of himself reading documents in shorts and T-shirt in the sunshine in a bid to convince the world he remains in the finest of fettles.

He scuttled off back to Moscow before the end of the first day, his departure clearly timed to have him out of the way before Putin unleashed a barrage of missiles on civilian targets in Ukraine in an open show of disdain for the principle of international cooperation represented by the G20.

If the Russian president hoped to sow disarray among his foes, his gambit failed, as the presence of so many Nato and G7 leaders in one place allowed Joe Biden to stage a swift show of unity in a pre-breakfast mini-summit.

Rishi Sunak was roused from his bed at 5am local time by the former private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Fiona McIlwham – now a Downing Street foreign affairs adviser – and plunged into a round of video calls taking in senior cabinet ministers in London, the president of Poland and Zelensky himself.

Warsaw’s assessment that the missile strike was an “unfortunate accident” involving a Ukrainian projectile fired in self-defence provided a very welcome sense of anti-climax to a summit that had at one point felt like a possible launchpad for a third World War.

The Kremlin crowed about Western “hysteria”, but in an end-of-conference press conference, Sunak very reasonably pointed out that Kyiv would have no need to launch anti-missile defences if it had not been subjected to unjustifiable aggression by its larger neighbour.

The rocket strikes interrupted what was effectively a session of diplomatic speed dating by the new prime minister. Just three weeks into his premiership – and fresh from introducing himself to a slew of world leaders at the Cop27 climate change conference in Egypt – the PM had aimed to use the G20 as an opportunity to introduce himself on the world stage.

The teetotal PM still managed to fit in a mango spritz with beer-drinking Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau at the trendy Art Cafe Bumbu Bali, where they were entertained by a gamelan xylophone band and traditional dancers.

He also squeezed in his first one-on-one chats with Biden, Jokowi, Indian PM Narendra Modi, Australia’s Anthony Albanese and – more controversially – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, while cutting a dash in the shiny red silk shirt which Widodo provided for Tuesday’s gala dinner.

His most controversial get-together – a hastily-arranged chinwag with China’s president Xi Jinping – fell foul of the disrupted schedules resulting from Russia’s missile assault, but not without sewing alarm among Tory China hawks, who saw it as an unacceptable softening of the UK’s stance towards Beijing.

Despite expectations of a Russian veto, the G20 leaders succeeded in producing a communique packed with aspirations for a brighter future, along with a condemnation of war subscribed to be “most” of the group’s members.

But for Sunak, there was no euphoria at the completion of his first foray into global diplomacy. At his end-of-summit press conference there were more questions about his plans for tax hikes and spending cuts in Thursday’s autumn statement than there were about what he did at G20.

Like so many holidaymakers flying home from the mangrove trees and frangipani flowers of Bali to their office or school, Rishi Sunak’s return to London represented a grim return to reality, with Jeremy Hunt’s austerity package swiftly wiping away all memory of the dramas of the past few days.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor