US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed on Thursday that he had asked Russian Secretary of State Sergei Lavrov to end Russia’s “war of aggression” in Ukraine.
At a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 chiefs of diplomacy meeting in New Delhi, Blinken and Lavrov spoke for a few minutes, despite no bilateral meeting being scheduled.
“I told the (Russian) foreign minister what I said last week, like so many others, at the United Nations and what so many G20 foreign ministers said: end this war of aggression, engage in a meaningful diplomacy that can lead to a just and lasting peace”said Blinken, talking to journalists.
Blinken and Lavrov had not only met face-to-face since January 2022, a few weeks before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Still, the two heads of diplomacy spoke by phone, but on matters other than Ukraine.
During sessions of the G20 ministerial meeting in New Delhi, the Russian foreign minister criticized the “obscene behavior of some Western delegations, making the work on the agenda a farce,” according to the Russian government agency TASS.
The meeting of the G20 chiefs of diplomacy ended without a final joint statement, highlighting the differences between the members of this forum, made up of 19 of the world’s largest economies and the European Union bloc, over the war in Ukraine .
Instead of a formal communiqué, the hosts of the meeting opted for a concise text of the debates held, stating that each of the countries reiterated their respective positions regarding the conflict unleashed a little over a year ago by the Russian military offensive .
Russia and China, which are part of the G20, objected to a paragraph in the joint final communiqué calling for “the total and unconditional withdrawal of Russia from the territory of Ukraine,” according to a summary of the talks released by the Indian presidency .
Russia also wanted to include in the document the need for an “impartial” investigation after the explosions that damaged Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, according to the version released by the Russian delegation.
At the meeting, delegates from Western countries said they feared China is considering supplying Russia with weapons and said before the summit that they intended to discourage Beijing from getting involved in the conflict.
“If China provides lethal material support to Russia’s aggression or commits systematic sanctions violations to help Russia, it will pose a serious problem.”said Blink.
Source: DN
