G20 foreign ministers to meet in India, focus on Ukraine war

Foreign ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) leading industrial and emerging countries are set to meet in India from Wednesday.

This is coming more than a year after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to the official programme, only dinner is scheduled for Wednesday evening, with the working sessions planned for Thursday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s appearance in the capital New Delhi is eagerly awaited.

Last July, Lavrov caused a scandal at the most recent G20 foreign ministers’ meeting at the Indonesian resort island of Bali as he left the room immediately after his speech.

He never waited to listen to his critics.

The G20 meeting in India is considered the first major conference since Bali at which Lavrov will meet his Western counterparts.

Besides Lavrov, the new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected in New Delhi.

The Chinese position paper for an end to the war started by Russia, which was received with much scepticism in the West, is also likely to play a role at the G20 meeting.

Moscow has welcomed the paper, but sees no precondition for a peaceful solution at present, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov,

Host India has a neutral stance on the Russian war and good relations with Western countries as well as Russia.

The G20 included the European Union and the strongest economies of all continents: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany and India.

Others are Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.

The group claims to account for more than 80 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product and 75 per cent of global trade accounts for about 60 per cent of the world’s population.