Foreign ministers of G20 to meet today
2 min read . Updated: 02 Mar 2023, 12:35 AM IST
PremiumApart from G20 members, India has also invited delegations from Singapore, the UAE, Egypt and the Netherlands among others.
New Delhi: The key G20 foreign ministers’ meeting moves into high gear on Thursday, when the top diplomats of member-countries meet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in New Delhi. With the notable exception of Japan’s foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, the city will play host to the foreign ministers of most major global powers including Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Antony Blinken of the US and Qin Gang of China.
Around 40 delegations are expected to take part in the meeting, said foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra at a press briefing. Apart from G20 members, India has also invited delegations from Singapore, the UAE, Egypt and the Netherlands among others. This will be the second ministerial-level meeting of India’s G-20 presidency after the finance ministers and central bankers’ meeting in Bengaluru in late February. Expectations that Quad foreign ministers would meet on the sidelines of the summit have been made uncertain by the Japanese foreign minister’s absence.
The program officially began on Tuesday evening with a dinner hosted by external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
Wednesday will see the bulk of meetings including Jaishankar’s bilaterals as well as two discussion sessions. These sessions will focus on issues ranging from multilateralism, development cooperation, counter terrorism and counter-narcotics to humanitarian cooperation and disaster risk reduction.
Even as the ministers meet, all eyes will be on the unfolding tensions between the West on one hand and Russia and China on the other. Disagreements over how to characterise the war in Ukraine led to an inability to release a joint communique during the recently concluded Finance Ministers meeting.
“Given the nature and the developing situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it will be an important point of discussion in the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting," acknowledged Foreign Secretary Kwatra.
However, the Foreign Secretary avoided controversy on questions related to how India planned to manage the inevitable tensions between the two blocs in the war. However, both the Foreign Secretary and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi backed the Bali Declaration that was agreed upon during the Indonesia Presidency of the G20. The Declaration, which includes significant criticism of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, was secured after careful diplomacy by India and Indonesia. However, attempts by Western nations to include similar criticism during the recent G20 Finance Ministers meeting were resisted by Russia and China, which refused to endorse a joint communique.
This has led to concerns that tensions over Ukraine will undermine substantive discussions on the ambitious agenda set for the Foreign Ministers meeting.