Miliband said the decision is in part about showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, adding: “Different countries make different decisions on these things.”
The U.K. foreign secretary confirmed Prime Minister Andy Burnham will be at the Miami G20 later this year, but declined to “second guess the decisions” about who’s invited.
Elsewhere in his interview, Miliband acknowledged that disagreements with the Trump administration over the future of the Chagos Islands were discussed when Burnham met Trump at the U.N. General Assembly earlier this month.
“It’s pretty clear, as became apparent from that meeting, that the U.S. administration does not at the moment agree with the arrangement,” Miliband said, adding he and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “talk a lot” about the way forward. Britain has agreed to cede sovereignty of the archipelago, home to the joint U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia airbase, to Mauritius. A lease arrangement has been worked out to allow continued use of the base, but critics fear a strategic toehold risks falling into the orbit of China.