After Crimea was annexed in 2014, the G8 expelled Russia and became the G7. Could the G20 now do the same thing and become the G19 after the invasion of Ukraine?
Christian Lindner, the German finance minister who chaired talks on Ukraine with his G7 counterparts this week, said there was a consensus that international diplomacy with Russia could not return to business as usual.
Asked about the G20, he said it was “hardly imaginable” that Russian representatives could sit next to western diplomats at international summits “as if nothing has happened”.
But any decision on the G20 would, as Mr Lindner said, be above the pay grade of finance ministers and require agreement from world leaders in a club that goes well beyond the western-aligned democracies of the G7.
One of those leaders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, signalled he was open to expelling Russian ministers from the G20.
“They have self-selected themselves as a pariah state and that's how they should be known all around the world, and no one should have anything to do with them, frankly,” Mr Morrison said.
Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to Nato, wrote in an opinion piece that there was “no place for Russia in the G20” and that other formal talks should be suspended, but some diplomatic channels kept open.
Russia is the world’s 11th-richest country and President Vladimir Putin took part in discussions at last year’s summit on the world economy, the coronavirus pandemic and international development.
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Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA -
Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP -
A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo -
Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo -
A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo -
A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo -
Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA -
Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP -
A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA -
Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP -
A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters -
MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP -
Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty -
Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP -
Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP -
A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP -
Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters -
An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters -
People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters -
A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters -
A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters -
A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters -
A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP -
A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP -
Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP -
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP -
A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP -
Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP -
An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP -
Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP -
Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters -
US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters -
Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP -
Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP -
A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP -
Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA
Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia and China watered down a G20 finance leaders’ statement on geopolitical risks by deleting a reference to “current tensions”.
But Russia is now under sanctions by many of those G20 countries, in a punitive package which UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as the biggest ever imposed against a member of that club.
European diplomats walked out of a human rights summit in Geneva this week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is now under personal sanctions by western countries, took the microphone.
However, Russia has more potential allies in the G20 than in the G7. That became clear in a similar debate which arose in 2014, when Australia chaired the G20 in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
At that time, calls to exclude Russia from the G20 ran into opposition from its allies in the so-called BRICS group of countries, namely Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
Those countries and Russia issued a statement saying the G20 “belongs to all member states equally” and that the host country had no right to take unilateral actions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did attend the summit in Brisbane but left early after being harangued by world leaders about his country’s behaviour.
The BRICS group could prove an ally again for Mr Putin this year. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said his country would not take sides over Ukraine, while China and India abstained in a UN Security Council vote on the crisis.
South Africa called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine but held out hope for a diplomatic solution to address Moscow’s security concerns.
Indonesia, which holds the G20 presidency this year, said the attack on Ukraine was unacceptable but has not moved to impose sanctions on Russia.
The G20 has no permanent staff and some of Indonesia’s workload is shared by previous and subsequent presidents, in this case Italy and India. The main leaders’ summit is scheduled to take place in Bali, Indonesia, in November.
