The foreign minister again called on Russia to end the war in Ukraine immediately.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
New Delhi At the G20 meeting of foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) called on Russia to end the war of aggression against Ukraine. “Stop this war. Stop violating our international order. Stop the bombing of Ukrainian cities and civilians,” the Greens politician demanded on Thursday at meetings of the G20 foreign ministers in India’s capital, New Delhi, according to information from delegation circles. She turned directly to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“It is good that you are here in the hall to listen,” Baerbock said to the Russian minister. “Stop the war. Not in a month or a year, but today.” She added: “Because every family that loses a father, a brother, a mother, a child loses a whole world.” There is no right of the strongest, his little one attacking neighbors.
Baerbock pointed out that there are different perspectives on the war in Ukraine among the G20 members. “But what unites us all is that there is not a single place in the world where the Russian war has had positive consequences.” This includes Russia itself. This is shown by thousands of people who left Russia and the country’s economic data.
She also expressed concern that Russia was planning to suspend the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty. Baerbock urged Lavrov to resume dialogue with the US and return to full implementation of the treaty.
Great challenges like the Covid pandemic can only be overcome together. Germany is approaching the G20 partners so that they can do what the group was invented for: to give the world hope that the challenges of our time can be solved. The G20 includes large industrialized and emerging countries, including Russia and China.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sits next to his counterparts from Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov complained that the agenda of the meeting had been turned into a farce. “Some Western delegations have made a mockery of the work on the G20 agenda as they want to blame the Russian Federation for their economic failures,” Lavrov said in New Delhi, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Baerbock, on the other hand, received approval from her US colleague Antony Blinken. He also stressed that the Ukraine war dominated the agenda at the G20 meeting. The demands on Russia for an immediate end to the war must be reinforced.
Modi insists on India’s neutral position
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously called on the foreign ministers to unite. One should not focus on matters that cannot be solved together – but on those that can be solved, Modi said at the beginning of the foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday in a video address in the capital New Delhi.
Ministers should address challenges such as growth, development, disaster resilience, financial stability, cross-border crime, and food and energy security.
India holds the G20 presidency this year and intends to pay particular attention to the concerns of the Global South.
(Photo: AP)
Such issues also particularly affect the Global South, which India would like to address during its G20 presidency this year. But Modi also addressed “geopolitical tensions” where those present had different views.
Host country India takes a neutral stance on the Russian war of aggression and has good relations with Western countries and Moscow. The recent G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru, India, which failed to produce a joint final declaration, also showed that the international community is anything but united on the issue of Ukraine. In addition to Russia, China also did not want to agree to a condemnation of the Russian war of aggression.
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