On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was absent from several meetings with his G20 counterparts following a spate of Western statements condemning Moscow’s military attack on Ukraine.
The meeting, held on the Indonesian island of Bali, was the first meeting between Lavrov and his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine began.
The summit organized in Bali did not lead to any concrete decision.
At the end of the meeting, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that the participants “expressed deep concern about the humanitarian consequences of the war” in Ukraine.
Indonesia, keen to remain neutral as a host nation, has since the opening of the meeting called for an end to the conflict, warning of its dire consequences for the world.
“Our duty is to end the war as soon as possible and resolve our differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” Marsudi said in the presence of Lavrov.
She pointed out that the effects of the war are “visible all over the world in terms of food, energy and budget. As usual, it is the poor and developing countries that suffer the most.”
The G-20 did not unanimously condemn the Russian invasion, and “certain members” did, especially the United States.
For its part, today, Friday, Moscow considered that Western countries “failed” to boycott Russia during the G-20 meeting.
“The G7 plan to boycott Russia in the G20 has failed. Nobody supported Western regimes,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. She denied that the Russian foreign minister had boycotted the meetings, dismissing German foreign minister Annalena Beerbock’s accusations that Moscow had no “intention for dialogue.”
As for Blinken, he told reporters, “What we heard today is an important consensus of the whole world, not just the United States … in order to stop the aggression” of Russia.
These appeals did not sit well with Lavrov, who was absent from several meetings.
According to diplomats, he left the room in the morning when the German Annalena Barbok criticized Moscow for the war.
Lavrov was also absent from the meeting, during which Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba delivered a speech via video link, and also left the room when Blinken denounced Russia, according to several diplomats, Agence France-Presse reported.
Blinken refused to meet with Lavrov separately and denounced Russia’s responsibility for the world’s food and energy crises, urging Moscow to allow grain exports from Ukraine.
Lavrov responded by stressing that his country “would not follow” Washington in the negotiations.
Lavrov accused Western countries of not using the G-20 platform to be a forum for discussing major global issues.
“Our Western partners tried to get away from solving global economic issues. As soon as they took the floor, they immediately burst into sharp criticism of Russia as an aggressor about the situation in Ukraine,” he said.
Before that, Blinken met with German Foreign Minister Annalena Beerbock, Frenchwoman Catherine Colonna and a British representative to discuss this “unjustified” war, according to the US State Department.
The officials discussed “how to respond to concerns about global food security caused by Russia’s deliberate targeting of Ukrainian agriculture.”
“Russia was so isolated that Lavrov left the conference at noon after the speech,” Colonna told AFP.
“Russia was isolated, even countries that we thought could support it were made responsible,” she added.
“Even China began its intervention by saying that the Charter of the United Nations should be at the heart of international relations,” Colonna added, adding that the Western representatives managed to form a united front against Russia.
And she stressed that “the war in Ukraine affects the whole world because of the behavior of Russia.”
The United States, supported by some of its Western allies, has called for Russia’s exclusion from international forums.
However, Indonesia, striving for its neutrality, confirmed its invitation to the Russian Foreign Minister, and in response invited its Ukrainian counterpart.
Kuleba asked the meeting participants to “remember, while listening to Russian lies, 344 families who lost their children” in Ukraine.
“The State Minister responsible for killing them is here today to share his thoughts on the Russian vision of cooperation in our globalized world,” he added.
no pictures
The meeting was influenced by reports of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election rally in his country.
Blinken said that the shooting of this great longtime ally of the United States was “a very sad moment.”
This ministerial meeting paves the way for the November summit of presidents and leaders in Bali, which was originally scheduled to discuss ways to ensure the recovery of the world economy after the shock caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed priorities and forced Westerners to form a united front to denounce the war, as well as causing food and energy prices to skyrocket.
An Indonesian official said no group photo would be taken after the meeting, which was marked by intense discussions.
In Ukraine, Western criticism did not prevent the Russian army on Friday from continuing its bombardment of the Donetsk region to seize the entire Donbas, its strategic goal since withdrawing from the outskirts of Kyiv at the end of March, four and a half months later. war.
And Ukrainian Governor Pavel Kirilenko said that as a result of Russian strikes in the Donetsk region, six people were killed and 21 wounded in a day.
The Ukrainian army confirmed that it had repelled a Russian attempt to advance near Slavyansk, but recognized the advance of enemy forces south of Seversk.
According to Governor Oleg Senegubov, in the Kharkiv region (northeast), the second largest city in the country, four people were killed and nine injured among civilians as a result of Russian bombardment in a day.
In the south, Kyiv reported that on Friday morning explosions were heard in the Mykolaiv region, from where, from the first days of the war, attempts began to launch a counterattack on occupied Kherson.