World leaders discuss global challenges. Putin loses his seat

• Vladimir Putin is sidelined on the world scene.
• Putin declined to attend any diplomatic events.
• He was censured as worldwide opposition to his war-hardened.

Vladimir Putin is sidelined on the world scene after three important summits in Asia last week.

Putin, whose nine-month onslaught on Ukraine has wrecked the European country and roiled the global economy, declined to attend any diplomatic events and was censured as worldwide opposition to his war-hardened.

A G20 conference in Bali this week finished with a proclamation that acknowledges states’ attitudes voiced in other forums, including a UN resolution deploring “in the harshest terms” Russian aggression against Ukraine, but noting various viewpoints.

As the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference ends in Bangkok on Saturday, its 21 leaders may do the same.

Foreign ministers of these economies agreed for the first time after months of discussions and debate on a unified statement on Friday. It replicated identically the language put down in Bali earlier this week and prepares the way for APEC leaders to do the same on Saturday.

“Most participants strongly criticized the violence in Ukraine and highlighted it is inflicting great human misery and increasing current global economic fragilities,” the document read.

The week has also shown Putin, who started his invasion to restore Russia’s purported previous greatness, as increasingly isolated, dug down in Moscow, and unable to face counterparts at important world forums.

Putin’s assessment was likely based on a fear of political maneuvers if he left the capital, an obsession with personal security, and a desire to avoid confrontation at summits, especially as Russia faces heavy battlefield losses.

Putin may not want to draw attention to the few states that have remained friendly to Russia, such as India and China, whose leaders he saw in Uzbekistan in September.

Gabuev: “He doesn’t want to be harmful.”

Even among countries that haven’t adopted a hard line against Russia, there are symptoms of lost patience, if not with Russia itself, then with its aggression.

Energy shortages, food insecurity, and inflation are pressuring global economies.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo told world leaders on Tuesday, “We must end the war.”

India, a big buyer of Russian energy even as the West shunned it in recent months, also called for a ceasefire at the G20. The conference’s final declaration says, “Today’s period must not be of war,” which Modi warned Putin about in September during a regional security forum in Uzbekistan.

It’s unclear if China, whose strategic cooperation with Russia is boosted by Xi Jinping and Putin, has shifted its posture. Beijing has declined to denounce or name the incursion. It has condemned Western sanctions and echoed Kremlin talking points blaming the US and NATO for the crisis, but its state-controlled domestic media has toned down this language in recent months.

In sideline discussions with Western leaders this week, Xi restated China’s desire for a ceasefire through negotiation and pledged to reject the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, but those words are not included in China’s account of the talks.

Xi Jinping informed US Vice President Joe Biden on the margins of the G20 that “nuclear weapons cannot be utilized and a nuclear war cannot be fought,” according to China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

China wants close connections with Russia, say watchers of its foreign policy.

“While these words are an indirect critique of Vladimir Putin, I don’t think they’re meant to distance China from Russia,” said Brian Hart of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Xi’s crowd wants to hear him.”

Xi’s diplomatic tour in Bali and Bangkok this week highlights Russia’s isolation.

Though the Biden administration deemed Beijing, not Moscow, the “most severe long-term risk” to the global order, Western leaders saw Xi as a key global partner. Many met with the Chinese leader to increase communication and cooperation.

Prior to Putin’s expulsion over his annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, the Group of Seven (G7) bloc was the Group of Eight. It remains to be seen whether the international expressions will have an impact.

Without Putin, leaders say, suffering would continue and the international order will be weakened.

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