Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has flown to the Indonesian island of Bali for a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, which will likely be overshadowed by Moscow’s war in Ukraine and deep divisions within it. of the blog on how to respond to the crisis.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the meeting, as concern among Western governments over the impact of the war on food costs is rising. and fuel, which has prompted the UN to warn of an “unprecedented” situation. wave of hunger and misery ”.
The meeting will be the first time Lavrov has met with counterparts from nations who are heavily critical of the war.
Analysts wonder how much the G20 can achieve, which is fraught with fractures over how to manage the war in Ukraine and its global impacts. While Western members have accused Moscow of war crimes and imposed unprecedented sanctions, others, such as China, Indonesia, India and South Africa, have not taken the same critical stance.
On Wednesday, Lavrov called on all parts of the world to make efforts to protect international law, saying, “The world is evolving in a complicated way.”
Earlier in the week, China attacked the United States and NATO, claiming that Washington “observes international rules only when it sees fit.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that “the so-called rules-based international order is actually a family rule made by a handful of countries to serve the US self-interest.” .
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi after arriving in Bali. Photo: Dita Alangkara / EPA
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s meeting, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said it would not be a “normal summit” or “business as usual”.
Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior member of Southeast Asia on the Foreign Affairs Council, said Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is hosting the meeting, hopes to avoid a “disastrous meeting.”
There is such a diverse range of countries and views around the table, that it is “almost uncontrollable,” Kurlantzick said. “The differences are too great between some of the G20 countries to really come to any conclusions about almost anything. It will be miraculous simply if no one leaves, as happened during the meeting of finance ministers.”
In April, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada organized a coordinated march of a G20 meeting in protest of the invasion of Russia.
Some Western countries had threatened to boycott G20 meetings, but the U.S. State Department said Tuesday that Blinken would be a “full and active participant.” There would be no formal meeting between the US and Lavrov, he said, adding that Russia was not “serious about diplomacy.”
“We haven’t seen it yet,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “We would like the Russians to give us a reason to meet bilaterally with them, with Foreign Minister Lavrov, but the only thing we have seen emanating from Moscow is more brutality and aggression against the people and the country of ‘ Ukraine “.
Blinken will hold separate talks with Wang “to discuss the possibility of having railings” on US-China relations so that competition “does not lead to miscalculations or confrontations,” the U.S. deputy secretary of state said. Units, Daniel Kritenbrink.
“This will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we expect it to do and not in the context of Ukraine,” he said.
The global crisis in the cost of food and energy will have a prominent place at the G20 meeting, US officials said.
Ukraine is a major supplier of sunflower oil and corn, and cultivates enough wheat to feed 400 million people. However, its exports have been severely disrupted by the Russian invasion and Moscow’s blockade of its sea lanes.
Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is widely known, recently visited both Ukraine and Russia, calling for measures to allow the resumption of exports, on which Indonesia, like many nations, depends heavily.
Indonesia maintains an “independent and active” approach to foreign policy and has tried to emerge as a neutral actor that could help the negotiations.
Jokowi is likely to hope to “show up as a world leader and simply avoid a disastrous meeting,” Kurlantzick said.
“He probably expects some kind of situation where no one leaves the meeting, avoids total disaster and helps maintain dialogue between all the different actors, perhaps with a view to Russia starting to export grain again. To many countries, perhaps also they can achieve some other minor goal, ”Kurlantzick added.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report