David Cameron: We can’t let Russia dictate other countries’ foreign policy

As well as having another extended Hugh Grant moment about how great Britain is (excluding David Beckham’s feet, but including One Direction), David Cameron got his chance to hit back at Russia’s intransigence on Syria this afternoon as the G20 summit drew to a close. Nodding to the lengthy declaration issued by the leaders – which fails to mention Syria or Assad – the Prime Minister emphasised that ‘this summit was never going to reach an agreement on what action is needed on Syria’. When Barack Obama spoke later, he said the discussions had reached unanimity that ‘chemical weapons were used in Syria, there was a unanimous view that the norm against using chemical weapons has to be maintained’, but that only the majority had agreed that Assad was responsible.

But Cameron made clear that while Russia’s view might have made last night’s supper rather tense, it couldn’t stop intervention by exercising its veto on the UN Security Council.