Criticism is chasing Lavrov after leaving the G20 summit early
German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock accused her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, of refusing to speak after leaving the G20 meeting in Bali.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Lavrov skipped the Friday afternoon sessions, in addition to the official dinner.
Lavrov said on Friday, shortly after leaving a G20 summit meeting early, that there was no point in negotiations if Western countries hoped to help Ukraine beat Russia on the battlefield.
The summit focuses heavily on alliances and international relations, with many Western foreign ministers refusing to hold direct talks with Lavrov while he was there, in protest of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"The presence of the Russian foreign minister in a large part of the negotiations outside the room confirms that the Russian government is not at all ready to talk at the moment," Birbock said Friday afternoon on the Indonesian island.
Birbock emphasized that Lavrov was not present when the discussion was about the important issue of how to deal with the global food crisis, and said: "Therefore, it is very important, as the leading industrial countries of the Group of Seven major industrial countries, that we now jointly support the countries of the global south, and that we ensure Shouldn't people who are already suffering slip into an even more severe famine?
When shaking hands with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi before the meeting began, journalists asked Lavrov: "When are you going to stop the war?" and "Why don't you stop the war?"
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi were among those present at the meeting.
Birbock added that the vast majority of representatives at the meeting condemned Russia's "brutal war of aggression" on Ukraine as the greatest current threat, and said, "The appeal of the 19 countries was very clear to Russia: this war must end."
"The participants expressed their deep concern about the humanitarian consequences of the war, and its international impact on food, energy and finances," Marsudi said in a press conference today.
"Multilateralism is still the best way to solve global challenges," she added.
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