Russian President Vladimir Putin walking past US President Barack Obama during a group photo at the G20 Summit in St Petersburg yesterday. Photo: PAUS President Barack Obama defied pressure to abandon plans for air strikes against Syria at a summit yesterday, which left world leaders divided on the conflict but united behind a call to spur economic growth.
Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) developed and developing economies, who account for 90 per cent of the world economy and two thirds of its population, agreed that the economy was not out of crisis yet but was on the mend.
But Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin remained far apart on Syria after a 20-minute one-on-one talk on the sidelines of the summit yesterday, following a tense group discussion on the civil war over dinner late on Thursday.
“There has been a long discussion with a clear split in the group,” a G20 source said after the dinner in a Tsarist-era palace in Russia’s former imperial capital, St Petersburg.
A long discussion with a clear split in the group
Putin said he and Obama stood their ground and neither blinked, but at least there was dialogue.
“We hear one another, and understand the arguments but we don’t agree. I don’t agree with his arguments, he doesn’t agree with mine. But we hear them, try to analyse them,” he said.
China’s Xi Jinping also tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Obama from military action. “A political solution is the only right way out for the Syrian crisis, and a military strike cannot solve the problem from the root,” Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying. “We expect certain countries to have a second thought before action.”
Washington says troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a poison gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on August 21. Putin said the attack was carried out by the rebels in order to provoke outside military intervention against Assad.
Unable to win United Nations Security Council backing for military action because of the opposition by veto-wielding Russia, Obama is seeking the backing of the US Congress. He stuck to that position in St Petersburg.
Eleven nations urge strong response
Eleven nations condemned the August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria yesterday and called for a strong international response, according to a statement issued by the White House last night.
“The evidence clearly points to the Syrian government being responsible for the attack, which is part of a pattern of chemical weapons use by the regime,” said the statement, released as the G20 summit was ending.
It was signed by the leaders and representatives of Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, Britain and the United States. All but Spain are members of the G20.
The statement stopped short of calling for a military response.
“We call for a strong international response to this grave violation of the world’s rules and conscience that will send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never be repeated.
“Those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable,” it said.