Burnham Says Putin Will Not Be Invited to Manchester G20
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Vladimir Putin will not get an invitation to the G20 summit that the UK hosts in Manchester in November 2027. The line differs from Washington, which has asked the Russian president to this year's meeting.
Manchester gets the summit
The UK last held the G20 summit in 2009. The 2027 event runs for two days at the Manchester Central Convention Centre, in the city centre. Thousands of diplomats and delegates will attend alongside world leaders.
The government says it will use its G20 presidency to "reinforce global economic stability" and to "benefit people in every part of the UK".
Why Putin is left out
Asked whether Putin would be invited, Burnham said "no" and tied it to sanctions. He told The Economist that Putin "will not be coming because of an outstanding sanction" on senior Russian figures.
British policy since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine is to avoid bilateral dealings with Russian ministers. Russia still belongs to the G20, which has 19 member nations plus the European Union and the African Union. Ukraine does not belong to it, yet the war has hung over recent summits.
Miami and the Lavrov photo
Donald Trump drew controversy by inviting Putin to the G20 he will host in Miami in December. The Kremlin has not said if Putin will go. He has skipped every major global summit since the war began.
Friction showed at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in October. The United States had invited Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and that choice drew criticism after fresh public rows between Trump and Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky. European diplomats then refused to stand for the customary group photo with Lavrov, and this year it was cancelled.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Lavrov at the meeting that everyone knows who the aggressor in the war is.
Artificial intelligence on the agenda
Burnham called Manchester "a real opportunity" to work with Chinese president Xi Jinping on safety rules for artificial intelligence. Pressed on whether Britain could seat the US and China at one table on global AI supervision, he said it feels challenging now. He added that the need for global agreements has to be kept in view, because without them the risks of recent times will magnify and intensify.
Source: BBC News