RIO DE JANEIRO — Donald Trump may be on everyone’s minds at the G20, but he’s not on anyone’s lips.

The annual gathering of many of the world’s largest economies has featured intense discussion of climate change, global hunger, conflicts in Europe and the Middle East — along with some bittersweet remarks from Joe Biden on his final overseas trip as U.S. president.

But even as Trump’s reelection looms large over the gathering in Rio de Janeiro, and is deeply relevant to virtually all the discussions at hand, no one is eager to discuss the president-elect.

World leaders have already moved on from President Joe Biden, who has been peppered with questions about Trump since arriving in South America on Thursday, when he arrived at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima. But they’re not ready to speak openly in many cases about how they’re thinking about Trump.

None of the Brazilian ministers and officials who gave press conferences to assembled media on Monday mentioned Trump, either. Nor did the gathering’s host, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, mention the U.S. president-elect in his public-facing speeches.

France’s Emmanuel Macron — who, unusually among leaders present at the G20, allowed his afternoon speech to be broadcast — didn’t mention Trump by name. But it didn’t take a genius to work out who he was referring to when he said that “any breaking up of the international order by tariffs policies pursued by the strongest will encourage the others not to respect [the international order]” and warned of the “fragmentation” of the world order if the world’s most powerful economies engaged in a trade war.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was at pains not to criticize an ally when asked about criticism of support for Ukraine by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Starmer deflected, and spoke about the need to counter Russia in the war for “our own freedoms” too.

Even Biden is staying mum about his successor. He’s alluded to a change in administrations — telling leaders at the APEC summit in Peru that it would be his last of such meetings and saying in a speech in the Amazon rainforest on Sunday that it is “no secret” he is leaving office in January.

But he’s ignored more direct questions from reporters about Trump’s win and his looming second term.

As he wrapped his opening remarks at a meeting on Friday with the Japanese prime minister and South Korean president, Biden did not respond when a reporter asked what he told his counterparts about the impending second Trump administration. He gave a tight-lipped smile when he was asked a few hours later his message to allies about his successor. And he ignored repeated invitations from the press traveling with him from Peru to Brazil to take questions.

And administration officials have also attempted to downplay the role that Trump has played in the pair of foreign summits.

After Biden’s meeting with the Japanese prime minister and South Korean president, a senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak about the discussion, said the “president-elect’s name did not come up.” Even Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, undoubtedly a source of concern for the South Koreans, was not discussed, according to the official. Asked by another official if Trump was discussed in the president’s bilateral meeting with the Peruvian leader, the official said: “Not explicitly, no.”

In a briefing with reporters after Biden’s meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden “noted the obvious facts that there will be a new administration on January 20th.” Still, Sullivan said Biden “was really focused on the fact that there is a transition unfolding, that President Biden is determined for that transition to be smooth and for him to pass the relationship off, and he would like to pass it off on stable terms to the new administration.”

It’s not to say that all the world leaders in the Marvelous City are privately grieving the return of Trump — some are openly celebrating. Argentine President Javier Milei, who visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida before the gathering in Brazil, posted on X a clip of his speech where he crowed about how “the global elite cries at the humiliating defeat of the communist Kamala Harris.”

But the relative silence at the gathering is occurring as Trump telegraphs that he will play hardball on the international stage in order to advance American interests and once again upend progress made under Biden on reaching new global climate agreements and integrating and collaborating further with allies and partners.

Ahead of the gatherings, he unveiled nominations for his administration at a breakneck pace, among them many of the key interlocutors foreign governments will deal with over the next four years — including his secretary of State, national security adviser, secretary of Defense and U.N. ambassador. Some of those picks have signaled an administration that will be dominated by loyalists and skeptics of multilateral forums and engagements.

Tech mogul Elon Musk’s growing presence in Trump’s orbit has also prompted some observers to worry about potential effects on the U.S.-Europe relationship, especially as Musk has often sparred with European regulators.

If world leaders are unnerved by some of Trump’s staffing decisions, they’re not taking the bait. Asked about Trump’s cabinet picks by reporters on the flight with him to Rio, Starmer said: “I’m not going to comment on each of the appointments that President-elect Trump makes as he makes them. We have a constructive relationship.”

Starmer also punted when asked about Musk’s crying emoji tweet at Ukraine, saying “I’m not going to do a running commentary on what others say or do in relation to Ukraine.”

At least some world leaders are expressing confidence that international institutions will be equipped to respond to any shocks caused by Trump. When asked about how the international community should respond, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told reporters on Sunday that “the most important is to recognize the importance of multilateralism and to trust the multilateralism institutions.”

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Compared to his previous term, Trump will face a very different slate of foreign counterparts, adding to the geopolitical uncertainty as leaders strategize about how best to navigate the famously mercurial and transactional businessperson. He had a “bromance” with Macron, who will remain in office through 2027, but many of the other leaders with whom he built warm ties — namely Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Mexico’s Andres Manuel López Obrador — have left office or died.

Sam Blewett, Clea Caulcutt, Lauren Egan and Joe Stanley-Smith reported from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eric Bazail-Eimil reported from Washington.