G20 Summit Calls for More Aid to Gaza and an End to the War in Ukraine

Leaders of the world's 20 major economies called for a global pact to combat hunger, more aid for war-torn Gaza and an end to hostilities in the Mideast and Ukraine, issuing a joint declaration Monday that was heavy on generalities but short of details on how to accomplish those goals.
The joint statement was endorsed by group members but fell short of complete unanimity. It also called for a future global tax on billionaires and for reforms allowing the eventual expansion of the United Nation Security Council beyond its five current permanent members, The Associated Press said.
At the start of the three-day meeting which formally ends Wednesday, experts doubted Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could convince the assembled leaders to hammer out any agreement at all in a gathering rife with uncertainty over the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, and heightened global tensions over wars in the Mideast and Ukraine.
Argentina challenged some of the language in initial drafts and was the one country that did not endorse the complete document.
“Although generic, it is a positive surprise for Brazil,” said Thomas Traumann, an independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister. “There was a moment when there was a risk of no declaration at all. Despite the caveats, it is a good result for Lula.”
Condemnation of wars, calls for peace, but without casting blame
Taking place just over a year after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the declaration referred to the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the escalation in Lebanon,” stressing the urgent need to expand humanitarian assistance and better protect civilians.
“Affirming the Palestinian right to self-determination, we reiterate our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where Israel and a Palestinian State live side by side in peace,” it said.
It did not mention Israel’s suffering or of the 100 or so hostages still held by Hamas. Israel isn’t a G20 member. The war has so far killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, and more than 3,500 people in Lebanon following Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The omitted acknowledgment of Israel's distress appeared to run contrary to US President Joe Biden’s consistent backing of Israel's right to defend itself. It's something Biden always notes in public, even when speaking about the deprivation of Palestinians. During a meeting with G20 leaders before the declaration was hammered home, Biden expressed his view that Hamas is solely to blame for the war and called on fellow leaders to “increase the pressure on Hamas” to accept a cease-fire deal.
Biden's decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range US missiles to allow that country to strike more deeply inside Russia also played into the meetings,
“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should, as well,” Biden said during the summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the meeting , and instead sent his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. Putin has avoided such summits after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him.
The G20 declaration highlighted the human suffering in Ukraine while calling for peace, without naming Russia.
“The declaration avoids pointing the finger at the culprits,” said Paulo Velasco, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “That is, it doesn’t make any critical mention of Israel or Russia, but it highlights the dramatic humanitarian situations in both cases.”
The entire declaration lacks specificity, Velasco added.
“It is very much in line with what Brazil hoped for ... but if we really analyze it carefully, it is very much a declaration of intent. It is a declaration of good will on various issues, but we have very few concrete, tangible measures.”
Fraught push to tax global billionaires
The declaration did call for a possible tax on global billionaires, which Lula supports. Such a tax would affect about 3,000 people around the world, including about 100 in Latin América.
The clause was included despite opposition from Argentina. So was another promoting gender equality, said Brazilian and other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Argentina signed the G20 declaration, but also had issues with references to the UN’s 2030 sustainable development agenda. Its right-wing president, Javier Milei, has referred to the agenda as “a supranational program of a socialist nature.” It also objected to calls for regulating hate speech on social media, which Milei says infringes on national sovereignty, and to the idea that governments should do more to fight hunger.
Milei has often adopted a Trump-like role as a spoiler in multilateral talks hosted by his outspoken critic, Lula.
Concrete steps for fighting global hunger
Much of the declaration focuses on eradicating hunger — a priority for Lula.
Brazil’s government stressed that Lula’s launch of the global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday was as important as the final G20 declaration. As of Monday, 82 nations had signed onto the plan, Brazil’s government said. It is also backed by organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A demonstration Sunday on Rio’s Copacabana beach featured 733 empty plates spread across the sand to represent the 733 million people who went hungry in 2023, according to United Nations data.
Viviana Santiago, a director at the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam, praised Brazil for using its G20 presidency “to respond to people’s demands worldwide to tackle extreme inequality, hunger and climate breakdown, and particularly for rallying action on taxing the super-rich.”
“Brazil has lit a path toward a more just and resilient world, challenging others to meet them at this critical juncture,” she said in a statement.
Long-awaited reform of the United Nations Leaders pledged to work for “transformative reform” of the UN Security Council so that it aligns “with the realities and demands of the 21st century, makes it more representative, inclusive, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable.”
Lula has been calling for reform of the Security Council since his first two terms in power, from 2003 to 2010, without gaining much traction. Charged with maintaining international peace and security, its original 1945 structure has not changed. Five dominant powers at the end of World War II have veto power — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — while 10 countries from different regions serve rotating two-year terms.
Virtually all countries agree that nearly eight decades after the United Nations was established, the Security Council should be expanded to reflect the 21st century world and include more voices. The central quandary and biggest disagreement remains how to do that. The G20 declaration doesn’t answer that question.
“We call for an enlarged Security Council composition that improves the representation of the underrepresented and unrepresented regions and groups, such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean,” the declaration said.
The United States announced shortly before a UN summit in September that it supports two new permanent seats for African countries, without veto power, and a first-ever non-permanent seat for a small island developing nation. But the Group of Four – Brazil, Germany, India and Japan – support each other’s bids for permanent seats. And the larger Uniting for Consensus group of a dozen countries including Pakistan, Italy, Türkiye and Mexico wants additional non-permanent seats with longer terms.

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the United States on Tuesday, lowering the threshold for a nuclear strike just days after the administration of Joe Biden reportedly allowed Ukraine to fire American missiles deep into Russia.

The updated doctrine, formally known as "The basics of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence", outlines the threats that would make Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, contemplate using such weapons.

Russia would consider a nuclear strike if it, or its ally Belarus, faced aggression "with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity", the new doctrine said.

The previous doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree, said Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatened the existence of the state.

Other innovations included considering any conventional assault on Russia by a non-nuclear power supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack. Any mass aerospace attack with aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft that crossed Russia's borders could also trigger a nuclear response.

"Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies on the part of any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack," the doctrine said.

"Aggression of any state from a military coalition (bloc, union) against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered as aggression by the coalition (bloc, union) as a whole."

The Kremlin said Russia considered nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and that the aim of the updated text was to make absolutely clear to potential enemies that the inevitability of retaliation should they attack Russia.

Together, Russia and the US control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin is Russia's primary decision-maker on the use of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

WAR

Weeks before the November US presidential elections, Putin ordered changes to the nuclear doctrine.

Those changes have now been formally approved by Putin. Analysts said at the time that the change to the doctrine was an attempt by Putin to draw a red line for the West.

The war in Ukraine, which entered its 1,000th day on Tuesday, has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - considered to be the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war.

The reported decision on the use of US missiles by the outgoing Biden administration - though yet to be confirmed by Washington - has escalated tensions over Ukraine. Washington says Russia's deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia is an escalation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on reports that Kyiv may use US-made ATACMS missiles in support of Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's Kursk region, said on Tuesday that the Russian military was monitoring the situation very closely.

Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean "the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine" because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.

"Nuclear deterrence is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies," Peskov said.

The United States in 2022 was so concerned about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia that it warned Putin over the consequences of using such weapons, according to Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns.

Russia has begun mass production of mobile bomb shelters that can protect against a variety of man-made threats and natural disasters including radiation and shockwaves.

G20 Summit Calls for More Aid to Gaza and an End to the War in Ukraine