Special invitees chosen for G-7 to help 'isolate' Russia at G-20

New Delhi, May 14

The special invitees, including India, to the G-7 summit in Germany next month have all been selected with an eye on further cornering Russia over Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has invited leaders from India, Indonesia, Senegal, and South Africa to the summit.

Want all on board

To exclude Russia from G-20, we need all other G-19 countries on board. — Annalena Baerbock, German Finance Minister

Indonesia is the current chair of the G-20 that the G-7 would want to swing over to its side. The G-20 split evenly when western finance ministers walked out during the address by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

An equal number of finance ministers, including Nirmala Sitharaman, opted to keep listening to Siluanov and Indonesia’s Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who was in the chair, remained unmoved by the walkout.

In an effort to further soften up Jakarta, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Washington on Friday. Blinken also met Pham Minh Chinh, PM of Vietnam, another ASEAN heavyweight.

India is the most prominent case of a major developing country that needs to be weaned away from Russia. And the invitation was different from that to other special invitees. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally announced the invitation to PM Modi after they met in Berlin on May 2.

Another prominent missing link in the potential alliance against Russia is South Africa, which is repaying Moscow’s steadfast support to the African National Congress during its years in wilderness when the West was backing the apartheid regime in Johannesburg.

The West is starting to position the forthcoming G-20 summit as a fight between Russia and the rest. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, “When a G-20 member wants to destroy another country with bombs, we cannot simply pretend that nothing happened… but, to exclude Russia from the G-20, we need all of the other G-19 countries on board.”