UK's Sunak Says Putin Should Be Banned From Upcoming G20 Summit - Spokesperson

Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the two final candidates for the position of UK prime minister, urges the G20 countries to ban Russian President Vladimir Putin from participating in the 2022 summit in Indonesia's Bali, Sunak's spokesperson said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2022) Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the two final candidates for the position of UK prime minister, urges the G20 countries to ban Russian President Vladimir Putin from participating in the 2022 summit in Indonesia's Bali, Sunak's spokesperson said.

"We need to send a strong message to Putin that he doesn't have a seat at the (G20) table unless and until he stops his illegal war in Ukraine," the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Sky news.

The official noted that the UK's partners and allies from the G20 "have a collective responsibility to call Putin's abhorrent behavior out."

In July, Sunak's rival in race to 10 Downing Street, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, said that she would be ready to face Putin at the G20 summit and "call him out" if she were elected.

Indonesia will host this year's G20 summit in Bali in November. Several Western countries, the US and Canada in particular, advocated banning Russia altogether from the group, but were opposed by other members. Indonesia, in a bid to unite the G20 countries and reach a compromise, invited both Russia and Ukraine, a non-G20 country, to the summit.

In early August, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the decision on the format of participation in the G20 summit in Indonesia has not yet been made.