G20 foreign ministers to meet on russia's war
Photo: From open sources
G20 foreign ministers and other countries will meet in New Delhi this week.
The main topics will be russia's war against Ukraine and rising tensions between the US and China, Reuters reports.
The G20 foreign ministers will meet on March 1-2, shortly after the bloc's finance ministers in Bangalore failed to reach consensus on a joint statement condemning russia for the war in Ukraine and instead agreed on an outcome document.
The US State Secretary Antony Blinken, the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverley and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov will attend this year's meeting in India.
China is expected to send its foreign minister, Qin Gan. Representatives of 40 countries, including non-G20 countries invited by India and various organizations, will participate in the event.
The G20 block includes the wealthy democracies of the G7, as well as, in particular, russia, China, India, Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
A meeting of foreign ministers of the USA, India, Australia and Japan is planned on the sidelines of the G20.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government wants to focus this week's meeting on issues such as climate change, and the debt burden of developing countries, an official at India's foreign ministry said on condition of anonymity.
India does not want Ukraine to dominate the west, but it will be high on the agenda, the official said.
At the same time, he added that New Delhi "intends to continue to play the role of the global South and raise issues concerning the region."
The G20 foreign ministers' meeting will also see tensions between Washington and Beijing unfold, including over russia's war against Ukraine.
China, together with russia, refused to sign the final statement of the finance ministers in Bengaluru.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters that G20 financial leaders must condemn russia's aggression against Ukraine and that Europe was working on new sanctions against moscow.
The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and fellow G7 ministers called on Thursday for more financial support for Ukraine and vowed to maintain tough sanctions on russia.
G7 chair Japan's finance minister, Sunichi Suzuki, told reporters that the group would closely monitor the effectiveness of sanctions and "take further actions as needed."
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said the pressure on russia must be kept high to "completely isolate" russia's economy.
