The head of Russian diplomacy attends the meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 despite the isolation imposed by the international community after the invasion of Ukraine
After the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has made trips and has met with colleagues from other countries, but he had not attended an event of the international scope that has the meeting of foreign ministers of the member countries of the G20, which takes place on the Indonesian island of Bali, in a hotel in Nusa Dua. And it is that Lavrov has come to meet the foreign ministers of the twenty main industrialized and emerging economies like an elephant to a china shop because of the boycott of his Western counterparts, who will have to decide whether or not they plan to speak with him. No one has come face to face with him since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Some, such as the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, or the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, have already expressed their discomfort at the presence in Bali of the head of Russian diplomacy. As Baerbock pointed out in a statement, “it is in everyone’s interest that International Law be respected. Russia must not be allowed to use the G20 meeting as a platform in the midst of its aggression against Ukraine.”
This group includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine and imposed sanctions, while others such as China, Indonesia, India and South Africa have been lighter. The first thing Lavrov did as soon as he arrived in Bali was to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to whom he told that in light of the United States’ line “consisting of containing the development of our countries, we will continue to increase and broaden our interaction at a practical level. The Chinese foreign minister has responded that, “despite the difficulties, we remain together and have the same strategic approach.” Both have criticized the “illegal” Western sanctions, since, they stressed, they have been adopted by circumventing the UN. The Russian minister has already planned, according to his press department, a meeting with his Turkish colleague, Mevlut Cavusoglu, and with Indonesian leaders.
The US State Department is confident that, despite the presence of Russia, the G20 can make progress towards solving the Ukrainian crisis, although it rules out the possibility of signing a joint statement with Lavrov there. Likewise, it has been confirmed that Blinken will not meet with his Russian counterpart, although he will meet with the Chinese to talk about the tensions between their respective countries.
The Secretary of State’s refusal to meet with Lavrov was mocked this Wednesday by the Russian foreign spokeswoman, María Zajárova, by evoking Britney Spears’ song ‘Baby one more time’, whose lyrics she reproduced on her Telegram account : «My loneliness is killing me and I must confess that I still believe. When I’m not with you, I lose my mind. Give me a sign, make me fall in love one more time, darling.
Lavrov and Blinken held their last face-to-face meeting in January in Geneva. Then, on February 1, they spoke by phone, once again about the troops that Russia had deployed along the Ukrainian border and about the “security guarantees” required by Moscow to withdraw these forces, including avoiding further expansion of NATO and especially the non-inclusion of Ukraine.
The lack of agreement meant that, on February 18, less than a week after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, the US State Department agreed to a new meeting between the Russian and US foreign ministers to continue negotiating a solution. The meeting was supposed to take place in a few days, but Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk and decided to attack Ukraine.
The meeting this Thursday and Friday in Indonesia is the prelude to the summit of heads of state and government of the G20 that will take place in November. also in bali
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