G20 retake ‘family photo’ to include missing Biden

The US president arrived late for the initial photoshoot in Rio de Janeiro

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has managed to be part of a second group photo of G20 leaders at the summit in Brazil, after showing up too late for the first one.

Monday’s “family portrait” in Rio de Janeiro ended up being taken without Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after they showed up at the right place, but after the scheduled time. 

“Biden was late, and the group decided to not wait for him! Welcome to the multipolar world!” columnist S. L. Kanthan posted on X, alongside the truncated group portrait. 

He also noted that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were relegated to the second row, while the leaders of Brazil, India, South Africa and China were up in the front.

Biden and Trudeau missed Monday’s photo-op due to “logistical issues,” a senior US official told AP on condition of anonymity. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was also absent.

In the second “family photo,” taken on Tuesday, Biden was placed front and center, between Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meloni stood to Trudeau’s right, next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who got front-row billing in both pictures.

The AP described Monday’s mishap as “farcical” and said it had “seemed to symbolize the 81-year-old’s waning influence” as the world readied for the second presidency of Donald Trump, the former and upcoming US leader.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who represented Moscow at the summit in Rio de Janeiro, was in the photo on Monday, but not on Tuesday. He described the summit as “very positive” and noted that the West failed to push its “Ukraine agenda” in the final communique.

The G20 has agreed to create a new coordinating body to fight global hunger and poverty, which Russia has joined, Lavrov said on Tuesday, noting that Moscow has been a “reliable and leading global supplier” of food as well as energy. The Russian foreign minister also presented the summit with President Vladimir Putin’s Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative, a vehicle for connecting Europe and Asia and guaranteeing stability and security.