G20 Foreign Ministers Meetings Start in New Delhi

The meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 countries began in the capital of India, RIA Novosti reports.
Annalena Berbock, German Foreign Minister was the first to arrive at the venue of the meeting long before the official part started. Approximately an hour after her arrival other G20 members began arriving at the congress center. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived almost simultaneously with European and British diplomatic chiefs Josep Borrell and James Cleverly. The last to arrive was Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

In the meeting room, Lavrov sits next to the foreign ministers of Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Blinken is at the same table, but on the other side.

At the same time, the Russian delegation has no contacts with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti earlier. The State Department confirmed that Blinken was not planning to meet with Lavrov either, noting that the secretary of state would take part in sessions where Russian and Chinese ministers would be present, among others. The German Foreign Ministry expressed a similar position, stating that it would not give up meeting formats because of Lavrov’s participation in them.

Earlier, India’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra said that the situation around Ukraine would be one of the topics of the G20 ministerial meeting in New Delhi – the ministers would discuss its impact on the rest of the world.

The day before, Lavrov met with the foreign ministers of India, Turkey and Brazil on the sidelines of the G20. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the meeting with China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang will be the ministers’ first personal contact since his appointment.