Staying engaged to ease rising tensions

Last week's meeting of the Group of 20 (G-20) foreign ministers in Bali can be considered a mild success for having brought the chief diplomats of Russia and the United States together in the same room for the first time since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine sparked international condemnation, sanctions - and now, a global food and fuel crisis which dominated the discussions behind closed doors. Indonesia and President Joko Widodo must be applauded for managing to assemble a gathering which brought Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov face to face with many of his country's strongest critics, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Their Chinese counterpart Wang Yi was also in attendance.

It was thus a significant opportunity for the gathering of major economies that make up 80 per cent of the world's gross domestic product to thrash out a way forward for a post-pandemic global recovery, and keep the flames of multilateralism and globalisation from being extinguished. Those plans remain hobbled, however, by the war in Ukraine and firm positions of key players - including Ukraine which, although not a G-20 member, was invited to attend virtually.