Status: 11/13/2022 3:44 p.m
Shortly before the G20 summit in Bali, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov sharply attacked the West. He accused the United States and NATO of wanting to gain supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of militarizing Southeast Asia in order to curb Russian and Chinese interests in the region. “The United States and its NATO allies are trying to dominate this area,” Lavrov said at the end of the ASEAN summit in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh.
US President Joe Biden wants to bypass “integrative structures” for regional cooperation. Biden intends “to militarize this region with an apparent focus on containing China and containing Russian interests in the Asia-Pacific region.” Russia wants to expand relations with Asia in response to Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Verbal preparation of the G20 summit
Lavrov’s comments are also likely to set the tone for a confrontation between Russia and Western leaders at the G20 summit of leading developed and emerging economies in Bali on Tuesday and Wednesday. He will lead the Russian delegation there – at the first meeting of this kind since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. According to Russian information, President Vladimir Putin is not taking part.
Lavrov and Biden, like senior officials from other countries, attended the meeting of the ten-country ASEAN group as guests. In his speech at the summit, Biden condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine as brutal and unlawful. Despite all the criticism of the People’s Republic, the USA wanted to avoid an open conflict with China, he told the heads of state and government. To this end, the communication channels between the USA and China should remain open. However, the USA would continue to comment on the human rights situation in China, the Taiwan conflict and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
As a further focal point he named the conflict with North Korea and its nuclear and missile program. His goal is also a comprehensive strategic partnership with the Southeast Asia region. On Monday, Biden wants to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in his term of office in the run-up to the G20 summit.