White House: Biden was not present at the common photo of the G20 because of logistical problems
A senior White House official said that current US President Joe Biden was not present at the common photo of the G20 (Group of 20) leaders because of logistical problems and not because he allegedly wanted to avoid meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in this way, the White House pool reported.
‘Because of logistical problems, they took the photo before all the leaders arrived,’ the official told reporters, adding that it had nothing to do with the fact that Biden allegedly did not want to be in the same photo with Lavrov.
Earlier, the Bloomberg agency drew attention to the absence of G20 leaders Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni in the photo. The organisers of the G20 in Brazil said that these leaders were late for the joint photo and that there might be an attempt to gather all the leaders for the photo again – for the first time in the history of the G20 forum. However, the agency noted that the ‘collective West’ appears in chaos at the summit due to the low ratings and weakened positions of many Western leaders at home.
The G20 summit takes place on 18-19 November in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil holds the G20 presidency from 1 December 2023. South Africa will chair the G20 next year.