NUSA DUA (dpa-AFX) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is leaving the G20 meeting of leading and emerging economic powerhouses in Bali early. “Lavrov is still conducting bilateral talks, then he turns to the press and leaves,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the German Press Agency on Friday. He therefore does not take part in the official meal and in the afternoon session.
According to information from delegation circles, Lavrov left the meeting room immediately after his speech. He also eluded the reply from Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), it was said. As acting chair of the G7 group of leading democratic economic powers, Baerbock was scheduled to be the next speaker after Lavrov. The Russian sat in the hall between representatives from Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Lavrov’s presence at the G20 meeting was also seen as a test for the Kremlin chief’s possible participation Wladimir Putin at the G20 summit on November 15th and 16th, which will also take place in Bali. Several states had questioned whether they would attend if Putin attended the summit in person.
At Lavrov’s welcome on Thursday, two German journalists called the minister questions. The ZDF correspondent Andreas Kynast asked: “When do you stop the war?” (German: “When will you end the war?”). Kynast was then taken out of the reception hall by Indonesian security officials. There were therefore no further restrictions for him at first. A second German journalist shouted at Lavrov: “Why don’t you stop the war?” (German: “Why don’t you end the war?”).
At the start of the meeting, hostess Retno Marsudi urgently called for an end to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “It is our responsibility to end the war as quickly as possible. And to build bridges and not walls,” said the Indonesian foreign minister. The world’s largest island state currently chairs the G20 confederation of states.
Indonesia, which currently holds the G20 presidency, offered to mediate between the conflicting parties after President Joko Widodo made a trip to Moscow and Kyiv at the end of June. In her opening speech, Marsudi said the group of states must use the opportunity of the meeting to build trust and “give peace a chance”. She urgently called for multilateralism, ie for cooperation between states in solving current political and social problems. “Global challenges require global solutions,” she said.
Shortly after arriving in Bali on Thursday evening, Baerbock said that in her reply to Lavrov she would “find very clear words that we do not accept this breach of international law”./bk/mau/cfn/DP/mis