The China factor

China’s Xi Jinping was the leader everyone wanted to meet at this week’s G20 summit, where he took centre stage after three years of self-imposed pandemic isolation. After Xi met US President Joe Biden on Monday, his checklist also included summit host Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a meeting at the summit that Moscow’s position that a nuclear war ought not be fought showed a “rational” and “responsible” attitude. French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi agreed it was urgent to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine and reaffirmed their position on preventing the use of nuclear arms there, the French Presidency said.