No official contact between the two, but the Indonesian minister confirms. However, the head of Russian diplomacy remains isolated and leaves the room early
FROM THE CORRESPONDENT FROM WASHINGTON. Catherine Colonna is the French foreign minister and said that at the G20 in Bali “Russia found itself isolated”. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Lavrov, head of Russian diplomacy, on the other hand, saw a different summit: “The West has failed in its attempt to isolate Russia”. In the middle, the Indonesian presidency took on the role of the super partes country but had to accept that the representatives of the 20 most important economies on the planet will return home without having signed a common document.
The G7 countries have given up on the start-up dinner and did not show up for the group photo because Lavrov was there: “I didn’t ask to take the picture”, commented the head of Russian diplomacy, who replied by jumping the last session, that of the afternoon on food safety. In the morning he gave his short speech in which he accused Westerners of having diverted the agenda of the G20 and brought only “mad criticism of the Russian Federation”. Then as she was about to speak, Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, left. “Aggressors, invaders, occupiers, I have only heard things like that,” Lavrov said, explaining that this changes the meaning of the G20 and does not resolve global economic issues. A tense climate that makes, to say it with a Western diplomat, “very unlikely that Putin will be present in November for the summit of heads of state”.
It was the first time that the heads of diplomacy met under the same roof with Lavrov. According to Reuters, which quoted the president of the works, Minister Retno Marsudi, Blinken and Lavrov spoke to each other in the plenary room. She didn’t say what they discussed, or how long the face-to-face lasted. It is a reconstruction that the New York Times did not share, however, reporting that none of the Western delegations had contact with Lavrov. According to the script. On Thursday, the State Department reiterated that there would be no talks as Moscow has shown no good will.
However, the exchange between the two took place remotely on the grain and the unblocking of the port of Odessa to allow the Ukrainians to empty the silos. Blinken was directed: “Ukraine is not yours and their grain is not yours, let the crops go out.” Lavrov’s response came on the sidelines. The head of Russian diplomacy said he was ready to negotiate with Turkey and Ukraine, but he – he explained – that it is not clear how these talks can take place. Among other things, Lavrov himself explained yesterday that it is up to the Ukrainians to mine the port or find a way out to the Black Sea for cargo, thus placing the responsibility for the crisis on Kiev’s shoulders. So he pointed out that blocked wheat is just 1% of world reserves and that food security problems cannot arise from this.
A spokesman for the State Department told La Stampa that the US supports the efforts of the UN to reopen the ports of the Black Sea. To release millions of tons of grain the best way is to ensure safe passage for ships. This is why it is essential that Putin unconditionally cease his aggression against Ukraine ». On the hypothesis instead of a negotiation sketched out by Lavrov, in Washington the «evaluation that Russia is not yet ready to engage constructively» to achieve the objective remains strong.
Beyond the question of restoring the supply chain, Blinken’s mission was to try not to let the BRICS slip into the Russian camp. Blinken sent a very direct message to the G20 saying that the forum will only remain relevant if it holds Russia accountable for the war and its repercussions. A line shared by Di Maio and his Western allies, so much so that diplomatic sources said that the summit “was not a hot bath for Lavrov” and that “the majority of delegations spent critical words of Russia”. Perhaps this is also how we read the fact that the head of diplomacy – after an unsuccessful bilateral agreement with the Turkish Cavusoglu – has left his work. Minister Colonna reported a Chinese repositioning. For Beijing – you said – the UN charter must remain central. And the paper denounces invasions and unilateral revisions of the borders. Today it will be up to Blinken in the bilateral with Wang Yi to measure the distance between China and Russia.
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