When asked whether Putin would be invited to the meeting, Burnham replied: “No” (Photo: AP).
The 2027 G20 summit is scheduled to take place in November in Manchester, a city in northwestern England where Burnham previously served as mayor.
In September, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington had invited the Russian President, adding that the gathering would offer him an opportunity to engage with President Donald Trump and other world leaders, with possible discussions on Ukraine war peace plan. Moscow has said it “truly” appreciates the invitation but has not yet decided whether to accept it. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he feared the invitation would be viewed by Moscow as “encouragement to continue its aggressive policies”. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said it was “really very, very hard to understand this treatment” of Putin.
The development comes amid controversy over US invitation to Putin for this year’s G20 meeting in Miami in December. However, Putin has not attended a G20 leaders’ summit in person since the full-scale invasion. Russia has instead been represented at subsequent meetings by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov or other officials.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Thursday ruled out inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to next year’s G20 summit in the United Kingdom’s Manchester.