The foreign ministers of the G20 countries ("Big Twenty") at a meeting in Bali refused to take a group photo with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It is reported by Kyodo.
According to the agency, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other diplomats did not want to be photographed with Lavrov. Reuters claims that when Lavrov was photographed with the Indonesian Foreign Minister, shouts of "When will you stop the war ?!" and “Why don’t you stop the war?!”
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that on July 7, representatives of the G7 countries (US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan and the EU) refused to participate in the welcome dinner due to Lavrov's presence. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, responded by saying that Lavrov "did not notice the absence of boycotters." Lavrov himself, commenting on the ministers' refusal to take a group photo and come to dinner, said that he did not invite anyone to be photographed and this was "their understanding of politeness."
“As for their presence or absence, everyone was in the hall when the meeting began. I did not consider it necessary to make any gestures, I listened, I was interested in understanding what the West breathes today. But the fact that they did not use the G20 for the purposes for which it was created is obvious. There was a welcome reception yesterday, they didn't come there. But this is their desire, understanding of the protocol, just courtesy. I believe that everything is going as we expected, but we, I am sure, have been heard.
The G20 summit will be held November 15-16 in Bali. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky were invited to the event. Political scientist, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Georgy Kunadze, in a conversation with The Insider, described Putin's decision to take part in the G20 summit with the saying "For seven miles of jelly to sip" ( in vain to go on a long journey ). The political scientist recalled that at the G20 summit in 2014, no one wanted to communicate with Putin and did not even sit at the same table with him at lunch: “So he sat alone, playing with his jaws. And he went home without waiting for the end of the official events. Several subsequent summits passed without visible scandals, although the estrangement towards the Russian leader was very noticeable.
