G20 meeting in Bali | Ottawa will not allow the Moscow speech to pass

Melanie Marquez
Journalism

Canada’s top diplomat is on her way to Bali, where she will meet with her counterparts from the Group of Twenty, this economic gathering.

Among his peers, there will be Sergey Lavrov from Russia.

“It is not true that I would find myself in the same room with Sergey Lavrov at the G-20,” Minister Jolie had fired last March.

Despite her presence, she still chose to make the trip.

Because his attendance is “also an opportunity to counter the disinformation of representatives of the Russian regime, which is now expected in such multilateral forums,” he wrote in the press release announcing his attendance at the summit.

Canada must stand up to expose Russia’s lies and propose, with like-minded partners, solutions to counter Russia’s weaponization of food. […] Minister Jolly said in the same press release.

Last April, G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors met in Washington when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov wanted to actually intervene.

Among those participating in the boycott are Canadian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Bank of Canada Governor Teff McClem, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

To the top of the leaders

This meeting comes as a prelude to the G20 Leaders Summit to be held in November.

In late March, US President Joe Biden called for Russia to be expelled from the G-20.

For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not go that far, but expressed his discomfort.

“It can’t be business as usual. With Russia around the table, it will be a big problem for many countries, including Canada. I don’t think we can sit with Russia around the table.

At the same time, he could not help but underscore the irony that the regime of Vladimir Putin, which is wreaking havoc in the global economy, has its place within a group whose task is precisely to find ways to promote economic growth.