Contrary to what was announced, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a face-to-face meeting yesterday morning in New Delhi, although it was reduced to a separate meeting of less than ten minutes. , in the framework of the meeting of foreign ministers of the G-20. It is, in any case, their first meeting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Where there are no surprises is in the confirmation of the deep divergences between their countries, the United States and Russia, about the war. Something that has prevented a consensus on a joint final statement.
It should be said that, unlike what happens in the G-7, in the G-20 different readings of the conflict and those responsible coexist. Hence, the host, Narendra Modi, has lamented the new division of the world into blocks in his videoconference speech. The Indian prime minister, by the way, was meeting yesterday with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, after having received the German, Olaf Scholz, last weekend.
During their brief interaction, the US Secretary of State informed his Russian counterpart that Moscow "must engage significantly in the diplomatic channel" so that "a just and lasting peace" can be achieved, according to his own words in Press conference.
According to reports, Antony Blinken would have underlined his permanent commitment to the Kyiv government before Sergei Lavrov, who would have asked Russia to return to the Nuevo Start nuclear non-proliferation treaty – declared suspended last month by Russia – and to intercede with in favor of the release of American Paul Whelan, imprisoned on charges of espionage.
For his part, his Russian counterpart – with whom he had not spoken in person since January 2022 in Geneva – accused the West of “burying the grain agreement”, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and the straits. Turks and that expires in fifteen days. According to Sergei Lavrov, this will not continue unless the "logistical and payment" constraints are also resolved, which, according to him, limit the export of Russian grain.
Lavrov did not refer to his talk with Blinken, but Russian ministerial spokeswoman Maria Zajárova denied that the war was included in it. “It's been [an encounter] brief and on the fly,” she said. This exercise in peripatetic diplomacy would have been requested, according to the Russian agency Interfax, by the US side, interested in keeping channels open for other issues of bilateral interest, already mentioned.
Lavrov joined forces with the new Chinese foreign minister, Qing Gang, to denounce what they call "blackmail and threats from Western countries", although Beijing has promised to play "a constructive role" in the conflict between the Russians and the Ukrainians. . The veteran head of Russian diplomacy also brought up the unexplained sabotage of the German-Russian Nordstream gas pipeline, a highly sensitive issue for other G-20 countries. At least for Saudi Arabia.
On the other hand, the need to ensure food and energy security is the most prominent request from the emerging countries within the G-20, such as South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Spain, as a permanent guest of the G-20, was represented by the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, while the European Union was represented by Josep Borrell.
The multilateral meeting was opened with a minute's silence for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, at the request of Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.
Finally, New Delhi, as a counterbalance to its neutrality between Ukraine and Russia (Moscow is its first arms supplier), is holding a meeting of the Quad today, an informal defense forum in which the United States, Australia and Japan also participate, with China in the spotlight. "Our relationship is abnormal", the Indian minister Jaishankar would have confessed yesterday to his new Chinese counterpart, Qing Gang, with the undefined border of the Himalayas as the main point of friction.
