Scholz Spoke in Favor of Preserving the G20 with Russia

“The G20 should continue to play its role,” said the German Prime Minister. However, Scholz did not give a definite answer to the question of whether he would sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke in favor of maintaining the G20 format. “One thing is clear: the G20 must continue to play its role,” the German Government Head said on Monday, June 27, in the Morgenmagazin program of the ZDF media company. According to the politician, the participants of the G7 summit in Elmau Castle in Bavaria expressed a common desire “|not to torpedo the G20.” Scholz did not give a clear answer to the question of whether he would sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We will make a decision shortly before we leave, because by then the situation in the world may have changed dramatically,” the Chancellor said. The next summit of the heads of state and government of the group of leading economic powers, which includes Russia, China and Saudi Arabia in particular, is to be held in Indonesia in November. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will take part in the summit upon the invitation of the Indonesian authorities. Ursula von der Leyen urged not to boycott the summit. Earlier, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen also urged not to allow the destruction of the G20 format because of the desire to isolate the Russian President. According to the politician, even if Putin decides to attend the G20 summit in November this year, this should not become a reason to boycott the event. “We have to think very carefully about whether to paralyze the whole G20, so I do not support this (boycottting - Ed.). In my view, the G20 is too important, including for developing countries, for us to allow Putin to destroy this body again,” von der Leyen said. On the contrary, she added, the upcoming summit should be used to “say to Putin’s face all we think about him and his actions.” “One thing is absolutely clear: there will be no ‘business as usual’,” the head of the European Commission stressed. DW