G20 ministers meet in Bali with Ukraine high on the agenda

The group of 20 foreign ministers met in Indonesia on Friday, attended by senior envoys from the United States and Russia, their first meeting since war broke out in Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov joined their counterparts in kicking off a day of talks as Washington sought to enlist support from the world’s leading economies to pressure Moscow over its neighbor’s invasion.

“Clearly, business-as-usual cannot be business as usual when it comes to Russian participation and engagement in companies like the G20,” a senior US official said ahead of the meeting.

In his comments at the opening of the meeting on the holiday island of Bali, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi addressed the war directly.

“It is our responsibility to end the war sooner rather than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” Marsudi said while Lavrov was in the room.

During his stay in Bali, Blinken will also try to resume dialogue with Beijing in talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the first in months after tensions over issues such as Taiwan ran high.

The G20 meeting aims to address the war’s impact on food and energy security, as well as the global economy’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the ravages of climate change.

But Blinken will avoid meeting Lavrov directly, instead pointing the finger at Moscow for sparking global food and energy crises.

However, the US official indicated that Washington does not want to embarrass Indonesia.

The hosts have addressed US concerns about Lavrov’s partial participation by inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the G20 summit later this year and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Friday’s meeting.

“It is very important to us that we focus on the G20 agenda,” the US official said.

Blinken arrived at the Mulia Hotel on the palm-lined island on Friday, where he was able to speak with South Africa’s foreign minister before entering the same room as Lavrov, who he last met in January.

Russia’s top diplomat sat at the beginning of the meeting between the Saudi Arabian and Mexican foreign ministers.

Friday’s meeting is a prelude to the leaders’ summit in Bali in November, which is set to focus on the global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

But attention has instead shifted to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has rattled global markets, skyrocketed food prices and led to allegations of Russian war crimes.

The US State Department declined to comment on the “choreography” in Bali or whether Blinken would drop out of meetings Lavrov attended.

But there will be no family photo of the G20 ministers, as is customary, an Indonesian government official told AFP.

Blinken’s efforts to get a strong Western stance on Russia at the G20 were diluted after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – who had taken a hard line on invading Moscow – resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday.

This prompted British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to cut short her Bali trip and withdraw from Friday’s meeting. She flew in from Bali on Friday morning, a British official told AFP.

Blinken and Wang’s talks on Saturday – their first since October – will aim to address tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

A senior US official for East Asia said the pair will discuss “guard rails” for the competition, but Blinken – who recently identified Beijing as the greatest threat to world order – will also explore areas of cooperation.

The meeting comes as US President Joe Biden expresses hope for talks in the coming weeks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he last spoke in March.

Lavrov met with Wang on Thursday to discuss Russia’s invasion, which Moscow says was launched to prevent Ukraine from joining the NATO military alliance.

Lavrov told Wang that Russia’s position on Ukraine was supported by “a growing number” of countries.

The United States has condemned Beijing’s support for Russia, and Blinken is expected to repeat those warnings in talks with Wang.