New Delhi, March 3. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured on Friday that the G20, created as a forum for economic debate for the largest economies and emerging countries, had lost its object trapped in the discussions on Ukraine and the pressure of Washington to corner Russia.
“No one cared about anything other than finance and macroeconomic policies, which the G20 was formed for,” Russia’s foreign minister told a Raisina Dialogue session in New Delhi, a day after the group failed to agree on their differences over the war in Ukraine.
Lavrov noted that “the whole G20 has been thinking about what to do with Ukraine and the final declaration,” and wondered if the group had ever thought about “the situation in Iraq, in Libya, Afghanistan or Yugoslavia”.
Part of the agenda of the Group of Twenty (G20), especially at the meeting of finance ministers held last week, was to try to give an answer to the economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Lavrov linked to Western sanctions. .
“The suffering of others is not at all related to what we are doing in Ukraine to defend ourselves, these sufferings are related to the sanctions (…) that the West is promoting”, declared the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Lavrov explained that relations with China “have never been better” a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern that Beijing could arm Moscow.
Friction between the United States and China also figured prominently at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, and this Friday foreign leaders from the Quad, the alliance made up of Japan, the United States, from Australia and India, met in New Delhi.
The quartet denounced attempts to “increase tension” in the Indo-Pacific, without naming China. Lavrov, for his part, denounced attempts to militarize the Quad and ally it with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), thereby isolating Moscow and Beijing in the region. EFE
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