Monitoring Desk
NEW DELHI: Harsh exchanges of words over the Ukraine war have dominated the G20 meeting in India. No joint statement has been issued due to disagreements and differences between the US and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the meeting had been spoiled by Russia’s unjustified war in Ukraine, but Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov blamed the Western countries of “blackmail.”
G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting Fails to Agree on Joint Statement
India’s foreign minister said that they had wanted to emphasize other issues affecting developing countries, but it said the disagreement over the issue of Ukraine “could not be reconciled.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and China’s Foreign Minister, along with other countries Foreign Ministers, attended the G-20 meeting in India.
Read Also: US Secretary of State Asks Russian FM to End War in Ukraine
It was the first face-to-face interaction between the US and Russian top diplomats since the war began in Ukraine. According to BBC, Antony Blinken met with his Russian counter Sergei Lavrov for 10 minutes on the sidelines of the G20 meeting and told Lavrov the Western countries would stand by Kyiv. During the meeting, the US Secretary of State also pressed Moscow to rejoin the New Start nuclear arms control agreement.
Russian officials said that Beijing and Moscow had agreed to oppose Western threats, but this hasn’t been confirmed by Chinese officials.
