FILE PHOTO: Britain's Conservative leadership candidate Rishi Sunak speaks during a hustings event, part of the Conservative party leadership campaign, at Perth Concert Hall, in Perth, Scotland, Britain August 16, 2022. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
LONDON (Reuters) -Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates vying to replace Boris Johnson as British prime minister, has called on the G20 to bar Russian President Vladimir Putin from its meetings until Moscow halts the war in Ukraine, his spokesman said on Friday.
Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will attend the G20 summit on the resort island of Bali this November, a longtime adviser to the Indonesian president said earlier.
"Our G20 partners and allies have a collective responsibility to call Putin’s abhorrent behaviour out. Sitting round a table with him isn’t good enough when he is responsible for children being killed in their beds as they sleep," a spokesman for former finance minister Sunak said.
"We need to send a strong message to Putin that he doesn't have a seat at the table unless and until he stops his illegal war in Ukraine."
Polls show Sunak is trailing current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the contest to replace Johnson, which will conclude on Sept. 5.
Truss's campaign, asked for her position, referred to comments she made in July when she said it would be important to confront Putin in front of allies like India and Indonesia.
"I would go there, and I would call Putin out," she told a televised debate on July 25.
As head of the G20 this year, Indonesia has faced pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin over his country's invasion on Ukraine, which his government calls a "special military operation".
Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy to attend the Bali summit.
(Reporting by William James, Writing by Kylie MacLellan)
