Russia-Ukraine conflict may overshadow G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting too

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to cast a shadow over the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi this week, just as it did over the recent conclave of the finance ministers and the governors of the central banks of the bloc’s member nations in Bengaluru.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will host his counterparts from the G20 nations in New Delhi on March 1 and 2. This is going to be the first meeting of the G20 foreign ministers after India took over the presidency of the bloc from Indonesia.

The meeting will bring the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and his counterparts in the United Kingdom and other western nations as well as Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, together. Though the meeting offers an opportunity to Lavrov and Blinken to hold a bilateral meeting on the sideline and to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, no such talks between the two ministers have been scheduled so far, at least not publicly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that India would contribute to any peace process to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will also attend the meeting. He is expected to promote China’s latest peace proposal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia and China last week blocked a joint communique that was expected to be issued after the meeting of the G20 finance ministers and the central bank governors in Bengaluru. Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, had to issue a chair’s statement, summarising the discussion during the meeting. They clarified that Russia and China objected to the two paragraphs of the chair’s summary – the ones, which condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine and referred to its impact on the global economy.

Lavrov had last year walked out of a similar G20 foreign ministers’ meeting hosted by Indonesia, after the US and the rest of the West had slammed Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine.

As the G20 meeting in Bengaluru took place just a year after Russia launched its special military operations against Ukraine, the US and the other western nations used the forum to launch a war of words against the former Soviet Union nation. They are expected to continue it during the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers too, diplomatic sources in New Delhi said.

The first session of the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers will focus on strengthening multilateralism and the need for reforms, food and energy security and development cooperation. The second session will focus on counter-terrorism, new and emerging threats, global skill mapping and talent pool and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the officials said in New Delhi.