The key facts

  • The G20 foreign ministers' meeting is taking place in Atlanta on October 30–31
  • Reuters reports that disagreements over Ukraine and the Middle East may derail joint statements
  • Sergei Lavrov arrived in Atlanta; the participation of the Russian delegation was agreed at the last moment

Disagreements within the G20

In Atlanta (USA), on October 30–31, a meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 countries is taking place. According to Reuters, which Gazeta.Ru cites,deep disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are likely to derail coordinated action and joint statements by the participants.

What the participants say

The former chief economist of the US State Department, Heidi E. Crebo-Rediker, notedthat over the past decade the G7 countries had at least agreed on a coordinated platform before participating in the G20, but now there is none, and reaching full agreement on the major strategic issues of the agenda will be very difficult. According to her, the negotiations may also be affected by recent decisions of US President Donald Trump regarding Russia and Ukraine. One G20 diplomat, according to Reuters, added that a number of countries — including Canada, Mexico and India — may seek to avoid conflicts and 'not attract unnecessary attention to themselves.'

Participation of the Russian delegation

On October 28, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, saidthat most of the organizational issues concerning the participation of the Russian delegation were resolved at the very last moment. On October 30, it became known that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had arrived in Atlanta. Earlier, the German Foreign Minister agreed to be photographed with Lavrov at the summit.

Context

The very participation of the head of Russian diplomacy in the G20 ministerial meeting on US territory, and the agreement of a European minister to appear in a joint photo with him, is a notable detail against the backdrop of statements about disagreements within the association: formally the forum continues, but, according to assessments cited by Reuters, the usual advance coordination among Western countries before it did not take place this time. No information about the final documents, or their absence, following the meeting has been reported so far.