World leaders attending a Group of 20 summit in Japan are clashing over the values that have served for decades as the foundation of their cooperation.
European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for suggesting in an interview with the newspaper Financial Times that liberalism was "obsolete."
In a statement to reporters, Tusk said, "We are here as Europeans also to firmly and unequivocally defend and promote liberal democracy."
He said, "What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective." As US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin and other leaders met on the sidelines of the summit, Tusk told reporters that such comments suggest a belief that "freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete."
Putin told the Financial Times that "the liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population."
Putin, whose country faces an array of the US and the EU sanctions, said at the meeting that "international trade has suffered from protectionism, politically motivated restrictions and barriers."
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