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Food Without Danger: Russian Federation supports the creation of an alliance against poverty
Rio de Janeiro is hosting the year-end event of Brazil's G20 presidency on November 18-19. Delegations from 40 countries and 15 international organizations on the first day of the summit discussed the creation of a global alliance against hunger and poverty. Russian diplomacy chief Sergei Lavrov spoke about Moscow's efforts to ensure food security for developing countries. Despite the fact that Brazil has chosen the fight against hunger and poverty, restructuring of global governance and climate change as key topics, experts believe that it will hardly be possible to avoid discussing the Ukrainian crisis. Izvestia reports on the first day of the G20 meeting.
Lavrov Attends G20 Summit
On November 18, the main and final event under Brazil's presidency of the G20 - the summit of the leaders of the group's member states - kicked off in Rio de Janeiro. Delegations from 40 countries and 15 international organizations gathered to summarize the results of discussions that were held at various levels throughout 2024, and then sign the final declaration on November 19.
The Russian delegation's plane landed in Rio de Janeiro around 3 p.m. on Nov. 17. Russian and Brazilian flags were raised on the runway of the military airport, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was met by a guard of honor at the ramp. The motorcade of the Russian delegation was escorted to the hotel by two cars of the Brazilian Federal Police.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the launch of the Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty at the G20 Summit
It became known back in October that the Russian leader would not be able to attend the event. Vladimir Putin said then that his arrival would actually disrupt the work of the forum.
The G20 Leaders' Summit is an annual event that mainly focuses on economic issues. The country presiding in the association chooses the priority topics for discussion during the year. Thus, Brazil has identified three main aspects for discussion: the fight against hunger and poverty, sustainable development and climate change, reform of global governance, including achieving greater representation of developing countries in international organizations. The summit declaration was adopted by consensus.
By the way, the emphasis on the environmental agenda can be traced in aspects of the organization of the event. There are no plastic utensils in the press center. There are ceramic cups and plates for coffee and snacks, recyclable paper cups for filtered water, and carbonated drinks and beer in aluminum cans. "Aluminum cans are the most easily recyclable beverage container in the world," reads one with the summit symbol.
Security was also given special attention in the preparations. According to sensations, there are more law enforcers during the G20 Leaders' Summit than there were during the meeting of foreign ministers in February this year. About a dozen federal police officers on motorcycles were stationed around the hotel where the Russian delegation was staying.
The government for a week passed a law and order decree that authorizes 7,500 military personnel to enforce order on the streets of Rio. Meanwhile, about 700 soldiers have been allocated to create a security belt immediately around the summit site. Armored personnel carriers are densely positioned along the road to the venue. In addition, drone defenses have been activated in several areas of the city.
Unlike the February meeting, this time journalists and delegations were in different buildings, and it was impossible to move between them without special accreditation.
How G20 summit guests were greeted
Participants of the summit began to arrive at the Museum of Modern Art, where the main meetings of these days are held, from 8:30 in the morning. According to the plan, the leaders of the invited states and organizations were to be the first to enter, followed by the heads of the G20 countries. However, the last to arrive was Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his country is not one of the permanent members of the G20.
All guests arrived in cars with the summit symbols, they run on environmentally friendly fuel - ethanol. Earlier this year, Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an agreement with the local association of sugarcane and bioenergy industries to create 80 hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles to transport delegations to G20 events - another contribution by the presidency to promote the environmental agenda.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a bilateral meeting a day before the opening of the G20 summit
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira welcomed the dignitaries at the entrance to the meeting hall. The leaders' wives were welcomed by the First Lady of Brazil, Rosangela da Silva. In particular, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French leader Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at the summit accompanied by their wives.
Notable among the visiting leaders is Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She took office on Oct. 1, succeeding her fellow party member Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. This is Sheinbaum's first trip abroad, and her government's views on foreign policy are not yet so clear, so who she will meet on the margins of the forum will be given a lot of attention.
Among the latest to arrive at the session was the head of the Russian delegation, Sergei Lavrov. In the hall for the first session, he sat next to the Turkish president.
Following Lavrov, the motorcade of Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived at the Museum of Modern Art. His delegation asked the organizers to ensure special security. Thus, it was reported that each of the 400 rooms of the hotel in the south of the city, where the Chinese are located, was thoroughly checked. In addition, the beach near the hotel was closed. Elite snipers were stationed at points around the hotel, and naval ships are monitoring security from the sea.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping's motorcade
Next for Xi, Joe Biden's motorcade pulled up to the museum. This is probably the last event of this scale that he will be able to attend in the remaining month and a half of his presidency. Biden took the longest to get to Lula da Silva. Members of the U.S. delegation, apparently, decided that climbing the red carpet uphill would be an impossible task for the elderly leader, so his way to the entrance was not caught on camera. Journalists speculate that he may have taken an elevator to the meeting place with Lula.
In addition, Joe Biden's delegation brought food and water for their leader from the US. Two U.S. planes landed in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 6. Seven fully loaded trucks carried provisions for Biden from the military airport.
Argentine leader Javier Milay was the penultimate to arrive at the site, accompanied by his sister Karina. His meeting with Lula da Silva was perhaps the most chilling. Previously, Mealey had repeatedly spoken out against the policies of the representative of the left in Brazil. Extremely tactile when it comes to greeting and posing for official photos, Lula da Silva could not hide his discomfort when Mealey refused to shake his hand for a photo. Without exchanging a few words with Lula, Milei headed for the meeting room. Before the first session began, he and Karina had been talking to other members of the Argentine delegation, not to the leaders of individual countries.
Argentine President Javier Milay
Javier Milay is expected to push Donald Trump's agenda in many ways at the G20. The two communicated in Florida a few days ago, the Argentine president becoming the first leader to meet with the Republican since his election victory.
What is being discussed on the first day of the summit
Brazil decided to start the first day of the summit with the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. Its approval was one of the goals of this country's presidency of the G20. The alliance should work to implement policies and social technologies to reduce hunger and poverty in the world. According to Brazil's idea, not only G20 countries, but also any interested states can join it.
"In 2024, there are still 733 million people who suffer from hunger. This is comparable to the sum of the populations of Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the UK, South Africa and Canada. These are women, men and children whose rights to life, education, development and food are violated every day. This is unacceptable in a world that produces almost 6 billion tons of food every year. In a world where military spending reaches $2.4 trillion, this is unacceptable. Hunger and poverty are not the result of scarcity and natural phenomena. Hunger is, as Brazilian scientist and geographer Josué de Castro said, "the biological expression of social evil," Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began the conference.
To create a mechanism where any poor country can turn to the alliance for help, Brazil is proposing the implementation of a tax on the super-rich. It is because of this item that Argentina may block the final declaration.
Two sessions are scheduled for the first day of the summit: one on social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, and one on global governance reform. At each of them, G20 member countries have been allocated five minutes each to speak, three minutes each for invited states and two minutes each for international organizations.
During his speech at the first session, Sergey Lavrov supported Brazil's initiative to create a global alliance to fight hunger and poverty, and spoke about Russia's efforts to ensure food security in developing countries. The Foreign Minister also noted the BRICS' significant contribution to solving global development problems and drew attention to the neocolonial practices of the collective West, which, according to the Minister, impede the establishment of equal international cooperation.
One topic that may be raised at the summit is the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. In particular, Bloomberg sources believe that Recep Tayyip Erdogan may put forward a proposal to freeze the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as propose to push back Ukraine's admission to NATO by 10 years as a concession to Russia.
Rocket fire on Donetsk
- I believe that Ukraine should be included in the declaration, as it has been in previous years, nevertheless it should be done to a much lesser extent now. The topics that Brazil has prioritized for this year should take the focus off of Ukraine. And during this year, Brazil has been quite successful in minimizing these kinds of discussions," Vinicius Rodrigues Vieira of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil told Izvestia.
Earlier, Russia's sous-sherpa in the G20 also emphasized that the main issues of the final declaration are trade, climate, energy, and digital transformation. The G20 members have many differences on these topics and there are active debates.
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