The foreign minister again called on Russia to end the war in Ukraine immediately.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
With China’s help, Russia can avoid appearing isolated itself. The government in Moscow emphasized the unity with Beijing. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, both countries have criticized attempts to “interfere in the internal affairs of other countries” and to work with “blackmail and threats”. There was a “high degree of agreement,” according to a meeting between Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang.
Baerbock urges Lavrov to end the war
Lavrov accused Western delegations of “making a farce” of working on the G20 agenda because they wanted to shift responsibility for their economic failures onto Russia. He also called for “unlawful sanctions” and the “arbitrary introduction of price caps” to be stopped.
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Before that, there had been an open confrontation between western states and Russia in the G20 meeting room in the Indian capital New Delhi: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock addressed Lavrov directly and called on him to ensure an immediate end to the war. “Stop violating our international order. Stop the bombing of Ukrainian cities and civilians,” she said, according to the German delegation.
India holds the G20 presidency this year and intends to pay particular attention to the concerns of the Global South.
(Photo: AP)
Alluding to Lavrov’s hasty departure from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali last year, when he left the meeting room right after his own statement, Baerbock said: “It is good that you are here in the room to listen.”
The United States accused Russia of weakening the work of the G20: “Unfortunately, this meeting was again marred by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. At the same time, he emphasized that the group still had to take on the global challenges.
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On the sidelines of the G20 meeting, Blinken and Lavrov also had a short, direct conversation. In the approximately ten-minute meeting, Blinken made it clear, according to the US government, that the United States would maintain its support for Ukraine until the end of the war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (standing) ignores the Russian representative Sergey Lavrov (seated). Both talk to each other at least briefly at the conference.
(Photo: Reuters)
Blinken also called for Russia to return to the New Start nuclear weapons control treaty. However, the US delegation saw no signs that Russia wanted to change its policy.
In India, the deep rifts between Russia and China on the one hand and the majority of the rest of the G20 on the other lead to concerns that the presidency year will fail. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already warned at the start of the round of foreign ministers: “We should not allow problems that we cannot solve together to stand in the way of those that we can solve.” He painted a bleak picture of the state of the world community. “The experiences of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemics, terrorism and wars – clearly show that global government action has failed.”
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