G20 foreign ministers travel to the resort island of Bali this week for a meeting that will be overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, with Russia’s attendance creating rifts in the bloc as host Indonesia tries to mediate.
Speaking ahead of the G20 meeting that runs from July 7, Thursday, to July 8, Friday, German foreign ministry spokesperson Christian Wagner said it would not be a “normal summit” nor “business as usual”. Germany holds the presidency of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and would coordinate in Bali over how to respond to Lavrov in light of the war in Ukraine, he said.
Trying to leverage Indonesia’s neutrality, President Joko Widodo embarked on an ambitious peace-brokering mission last week, visiting Kyiv and Moscow to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If you don’t show up, and then the Russians have the floor with some really critical countries like Indonesia, India, and others, then they’re making their arguments unopposed,” said Bergmann, who is now at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
During a trip to Vietnam on Wednesday, Russia’s Lavrov called on all parties in the world to make efforts to protect international laws as “the world is evolving in a complicated manner.”