G7, NATO leaders meet urgently in Bali on Poland

Nusa Dua, Indonesia, Nov 16 (EFE).- United States President Joe Biden, and other G7 and NATO leaders participating in the G20 summit in Bali held an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss a missile strike in Poland, the White House said.

The meeting took place at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Bali where Biden is staying, and where the press saw the arrival of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others.

Along with them were German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; the Prime Ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan, Justin Trudeau, Rishi Sunak, Giorgia Meloni and Kishida Fumio, respectively; and French President Emmanuel Macron, all G7 members.

Spanish and Dutch Prime Ministers Pedro Sanchez and Mark Rutte, both NATO countries, were also present at the G20 summit as guests, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, the White House said.

The Polish government blamed a “Russian-made missile” Wednesday for an explosion in the east of the country near the border with Ukraine that caused two deaths, and summoned the Russian ambassador to Warsaw. Biden offered no further information about the incident.

Michel said he was “shocked” by the news about the impact of the missiles on Polish territory, adding that he was “in contact with Polish authorities, members of the European Council and other allies” to analyze the situation, in a message on his official Twitter account.

Biden had planned to start the day at 9:00 local time (1:00 GMT) with a ceremony to plant a tree with the Indonesian president along with other leaders, but his participation and that of his colleagues from the G7 and NATO was canceled due to the incident in Poland.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo attended the planned event Wednesday, and, asked by the press, said he had not spoken with other world leaders about the incident in Poland.

“The G20 is an economic, financial and diplomatic forum, not a political forum. So here we talk about the economy,” said the leader in charge of the group’s rotating presidency. EFE

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