Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, has said he would not chase after the United States for talks as his counterpart, Antony Blinken, declined to see him at a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Top world diplomats and envoys gathered this week for the meeting of the foreign ministers of the G20, which was set up as a club of the world’s major economies. As the summit, which put some of the staunchest critics of Russia’s invasion in the same room as Moscow’s top diplomat, opened on Thursday, host country Indonesia told participants the Ukraine war must end and differences resolved through negotiations.
The United States has sought to isolate Russia on the world stage and aides to Blinken said they saw no point in speaking to Lavrov so long as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine , now in its fifth month.
Lavrov, while saluting Indonesia, denounced the approach of Western nations at the G20.
“It was not us who abandoned contact; it was the United States,” Lavrov told reporters on Friday. “We are not running after anybody suggesting meetings.”
The foreign minister dismissed what he cast as the West’s “frenzied” criticism of the war in Ukraine, scolding Russia’s rivals for scuppering a chance to tackle global economic issues.
Comentários