World leaders to forgo the ‘family photo’ at the G20 summit in Bali this year. Here’s why

Ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia’s Bali next week world leaders have decided to skip the “family photo” due to the widespread discomfort and tension over the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that began earlier this year. The family photo is a tradition that all the leaders participate in at the beginning of every year’s summit.

However, there will be no picture taken at the Indonesian-hosted summit which is set to begin on Tuesday and will also not be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The officials in Moscow have said that the country will be represented by Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Kremlin also dismissed all reports of Putin addressing the world leaders via video conference, as reported by WION earlier.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to address the summit virtually, who had earliersaid that he would not participate if the Russian president was present. The G20 comprises the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Argentina, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, and the European Union (EU).

This year’s summit will take place on November 15 and 16 in Bali, Indonesia, while the last in-person meeting of the group of 20 nations took place in Rome, Italy. However, the family photo taken last year also missed several leaders including China, Japan, South Africa and Mexico partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

(With inputs from agencies)

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