Status: 11/15/2022 5:22 p.m
Before the G20 summit comes to an end, Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov has left. In a draft of the final declaration, most of the participants condemned the war in Ukraine “in the strongest terms”. Lavrov agreed to the paper with conditions.
The G20 summit in Bali actually lasts until Wednesday. But Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov apparently preferred to leave the meeting before the final declaration was officially adopted. The plane with the Russian delegation took off from the Indonesian island in the evening (local time).
According to information from Russian state television, the minister’s departure had already been planned for Tuesday evening. A reason was not given. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 summit in Indonesia and was represented there by Foreign Minister Lavrov.
Lavrov speaks of politicization
Before his departure, Russia’s chief diplomat confirmed that work on the joint G20 final declaration is practically complete. At the same time, he accused some other participants of manipulation. “Our Western colleagues have tried in every possible way to politicize this statement and they have tried to sneak in language that would imply condemnation of the actions of the Russian Federation on behalf of the whole G20, including ourselves,” Lavrov told the state-run Russian According to news agency Tass.
The draft now contains both the Western and the Russian perspective on the war in Ukraine, Lavrov continued. Lavrov sharply criticized the government in Kyiv: “All problems” regarding possible peace negotiations are “on the Ukrainian side”. They reject “negotiations categorically” and set “obviously unrealistic conditions”.
Moscow now wants to see “concrete evidence that the West is seriously interested in disciplining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and explaining to him that this cannot go on, that it is not in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” he said Lavrov. Zelenskyj had rejected peace negotiations with Moscow as long as Putin was in power.
Russia wants to support the declaration
At the G20 summit, the chief negotiators of the European Union and the 19 leading industrial and emerging countries were actually able to agree on a draft for the final declaration after difficult negotiations, the news agencies dpa and AFP report. Moscow also wants to support the declaration. According to the afp news agency, Lavrov had urged the wording that there were “differing views and different assessments” of the Ukraine war to be included in the draft.
The paper, which has become public, says: “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.” This indicates that Russia has slipped into diplomatic isolation at the G20 meeting. The government in Moscow actually refuses on principle to describe its invasion of Ukraine as a war. Who are the “most members” who condemned the Russian war was not listed.
The paper goes on to say that the “war in Ukraine” has “negatively impacted the world economy” and that the threat to use nuclear weapons is “inadmissible.” The draft final declaration has to be approved by the heads of state and government, which is scheduled for Wednesday at the end of the summit.
Scholz: He also said two sentences
Lavrov let it be known that he had met briefly with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. According to the Russian foreign minister, Macron is ready for renewed contacts with Russian President Putin. Scholz himself said he only spoke briefly to Lavrov. “He stood near me and also said two sentences. That was the conversation,” said Scholz. The Chancellor emphasized that he did not want a false impression of the length of the exchange to arise. He said nothing about the content of the conversation.
The Chancellor rated the G20 summit as a success “despite the depressing general conditions”. With an agreement on a final declaration, the G20 summit could mark an “important stopping point” for the near future, said Scholz. In order to prevent the war from escalating, it was important to make this statement in bilateral talks with Russia’s ally China. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said in a video message that “now is the time” to stop the “destructive Russian war”. This will “save thousands of lives”.