Rishi Sunak will join Joe Biden for first time as they rally G20 nations to confront Russia

Rishi Sunak will meet President Joe Biden for the first time at this week’s G20 summit as Western allies confront Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

He will meet Mr Biden one-to-one on Wednesday morning and pledge to continue working ‘hand in glove’ with the US in the response to the conflict.

The two leaders will try to persuade member countries less supportive of Ukraine to rally behind their position, piling more pressure on Vladimir Putin to withdraw.

Rishi Sunak will be meeting President Joe Biden for the first time at the G20 summit this week

The two leaders intend to persuade more nations to get behind Ukraine in order to pile pressure on Putin

Russia is a G20 member. It is the first time in the 15-year history of G20 summits that it has met during a major European war instigated by one of its members.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will address the gathering by videolink.

Putin pulled out of the two-day summit, sending his foreign affairs secretary Sergey Lavrov in his place. 

Lavrov is expected to take a battering around the leaders’ table during the opening session tomorrow. 

It will be the first encounter between a British prime minister and Russian official since the country’s invasion in February and several leaders are expected to use their opening speeches to lambast Lavrov and his government.

Last night the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘We will use every opportunity to confront Russia about their continued illegal actions, about their inhumane bombardment of innocent civilians, of civilian infrastructure in an attempt to starve the Ukrainian people and, of course, the significant knock-on impact that is having on vulnerable countries around the world.’

Mr Sunak will also call for a global spending spree to help less wealthy countries resist cash provided by ‘exploitative’ lenders such as China, which has helped build infrastructure in 60 countries across Asia and Africa under its Belt and Road initiative.

However, the call could be undermined by the fact that the UK’s aid budget has been cut to 0.5 per cent of gross national income. It is not due to rise again until at least 2024.