The final decision on whether the G20 summit will be held offline or online remains with Saudi Arabia, which is the host country this year, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. He stressed that Russia remains committed to the G20 in any case.
"If the organizing party, and you know that Saudi Arabia is chairing, decides to hold [the summit] offline, then Russia is certainly an active participant in the G20 and remains committed to this format," he said, answering a question about whether President Vladimir Putin will take part in the event if the summit is decided to be held via videoconference.
When asked whether it became clear in what format the summit will be held, after the Russian leader's telephone conversation with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin representative noted that "the decision will be made by the organizing party."
As the Kremlin press service reported on Monday, September 7, the King of Saudi Arabia called the Russian leader. During the conversation, they also discussed preparations for the upcoming meeting of heads of state and government of the Group of twenty in November.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Mikhail Metzel / TASS
Based on materials from TASS