Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott
The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings.
Rubio still opened the talks in Atlanta with an appeal for unity on the issues that threaten international security and trade.
A lot of these nations are trying their best to simultaneously hold the door shut during these Trump years but keep a foot in the door to mend relations thereafter and should sensible Democrats return to power. Still, the volatility of US politics means these nations are forced to keep the US at arms-length because even if we elect another Obama (perceived extremely well by these nations) like El-Sayed, AOC, Talarico, etc. who’s to say in another 4 years we won’t elect another Trump… ? My guess is they will now expect systemic changes to prevent another Trump-like candidate hijacking the system, which is of course mostly dreaming as that would require major legislation and outright constitutional amendments. Tall order.
The United States have established that they’re incapable of stable relations. In world politics a decade is a short time and agreements are expected to last much longer than that. But the States have established that 180° turns can be expected every four years when sane presidents get elected and every couple weeks when it’s someone like Trump.
Living that down will require decades of very diligent attention to consistency and diplomacy.
I get that but. It’s still a shit strategy. Even if we elect Democrat house and Senate, followed by a Democrat president in 28. None of them should normalize relations till Democrats take basic steps to hold people accountable for what’s happened. And put actual rules and regulations with teeth in place to stop this from happening in the future. Not just norms and traditions that can be ignored. So realistically never trust us again.
And the corporations who own most of these politicians (democrats included) don’t want the changes that need to be made, as those changes will limit their influence. And they like the Trumps of this world who they can manipulate to give their industry whatever they want.
I tend to agree, but man… It sucks because that was exactly what Putin (and possibly Xi) desired to happen and have succeeded in that with Krasnov.
Xi was plenty involved as well. But this needs to be hung around the neck of every person in the GOP from now until the heat death of the universe.
Regardless what you think of the US and it’s history. Which for the record, it’s bad mmm’kay? But if you are someone that wants to see Americans succeed and the country improve. The GOP have actively been empowering and enabling the enemies of the people/country. For generations. Realistically we need to abolish any government at the federal level and anything close to that. But I don’t see that happening. So we need to do the next best thing. Taking this as a mandate to strengthen, improve and expand public education and services. So this doesn’t happen again in the future at the hands of an uneducated populace. None of this likely would have happened without the attacks to education etc.
Trump is a special flower