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THE TOP RUSSIAN and US envoys gathered today for a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia, with the host immediately telling them the Ukraine war must end and differences be resolved through negotiations.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov joined their colleagues for the start of day-long talks, with Washington seeking to gain support from the world’s top economies to pressure Moscow over the invasion of its neighbour.
“It clearly cannot be business as usual when it comes to Russia’s involvement and engagement in enterprises like the G20,” a senior US official said ahead of the meeting.
In comments to open the meeting on the resort island of Bali, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi directly addressed the war.
“It is our responsibility to end the war sooner than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not the battlefield,” Marsudi said, with Lavrov in the room.
While in Bali, Blinken will also seek to reopen dialogue with Beijing in talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the first in months after tensions strained over issues including Taiwan.
The G20 meeting is looking to tackle the war’s impact on food and energy security, as well as the global economy’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the ravages of climate change.
But Blinken will shun a direct meeting with Lavrov, instead pointing the finger at Moscow for triggering global food and energy crises.
No family photo
However the US official indicated Washington did not want to embarrass Indonesia.
The hosts have addressed US concerns about Lavrov attending in part by inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the G20 summit later this year and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Friday’s meet.
“It’s very important to us that we focus on the G20 agenda,” the US official said.
The official declined to comment on the “choreography” in Bali between the American and Russian diplomats.
But there will be no family photo of the G20 ministers as is customary, an Indonesian government official told AFP.
Blinken arrived at the Mulia hotel on the palm-fringed island on Friday where he could be seen talking with South Africa’s foreign minister before entering the same room as Lavrov, who he last met in January.
Russia’s top diplomat was seated between the Saudi Arabian and Mexican foreign ministers as the meeting began.
Friday’s meeting is a prelude to the leaders’ summit on Bali in November that is meant to focus on the global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
But attention has instead shifted to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has rattled global markets, sent food prices skyrocketing and led to allegations of Russian war crimes.
Liz Truss leaves
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will prevent Russia using the meeting as a “propaganda forum” on the Ukraine war, his spokeswoman said yesterday.
Blinken’s efforts to have a powerful Western stance against Russia at the G20 were diluted after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative party at lunchtime yesterday.
It prompted British Foreign Minister Liz Truss to cut short her Bali trip and pull out of Friday’s meeting, where she was expected to join her American and European counterparts in criticising Moscow.
She flew out of Bali on Friday morning and was replaced by former British ambassador to the European Union Tim Barrow, a British official told AFP.
The talks between Blinken and Wang on Saturday — their first since October — will seek to address tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
A top US official for East Asia said the pair would discuss “guardrails” on competition but said Blinken would also explore areas of cooperation.
The meeting comes as US President Joe Biden voices hope for a conversation in the coming weeks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he last spoke in March.
Lavrov met Wang on Thursday to discuss Russia’s invasion, which Moscow says it launched to stop Ukraine from joining the NATO military alliance.
The United States has condemned Beijing’s support for Russia and Blinken is expected to reiterate those warnings in talks with Wang.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong will herself meet Wang on the sidelines of the meeting on Friday to press China to end trade “blockages”, she said.
“We all know we have our differences. There are challenges in the relationship. We believe engagement is necessary to stabilise the relationship,” Wong told reporters.
It will be Australia and China’s first foreign ministers’ meeting since 2019.
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Historically, it was always considered notable how common it was for Irish women to fight alongside men. This can likely be traced back to Brehon Law attitudes that tended to hold women in equal regard to men in Ireland since time immemorial. Then the Catholic Church entered the frame and 3,500 years of equality unravelled in a matter of months, but Irish attitudes often remained.
It took Ireland centuries to convert, and even so they were not Catholic.
Catholicism came with the Normans in 1169. In fact, it was a large part of their casus belli that the Irish were part of the “Celtic Church”, and needed to be brought under the fold.
What also remains is the blaming of the Catholic Church for everything….. probably from British rule and people’s slavish deference to their media.
Firstly, no Catholic Church, early Christian Church conversion.
Secondly, same in rest of the world.
Thirdly, people choose to treat women in a certain way. Men chose wrong here for decades.
Fourthly, Ireland is one of the best countries to be a woman in, according to the Oecd.
A lot of the women and men of the 1916-1921 period were ignored by our governments for years.
The only people who turned up at 1916 commomerations were overweight special branchers with handicams filming “republicans” while junkies were injecting themselves and harrassing people.
Way to go.
First comment turns the forum into a Catholic bashing exercise.
I’m actually with Oran on this one. It was the industrial revolution that fixed the ideas on women that we have. The Church only provided a mechanism, as it did everywhere, Catholic or not.
Liam knew once he bashed the Catholic Church, even though he was wrong, he was bound to get green thumbs…
@liam. What you say is true. De Valera even had our fighting women air-brushed from photographs. Hardly surprising – Sure didn’t he allow McQuaid to dictate our constitution & enslaved us into the Catholic Church to replace Britain.
Oran, I think it’s fair to say that the Catholic church did nothing to rectify the inequality for many centuries, and continues in that fine tradition today. So you can call it bashing if you like, but at best they’re collaborators with a bad culture, but we all know they helped to keep women in their supposed place.
@declan madsen – The Catholic Church kept everyone in their place. All children were intimidated by Catholicism from an early age & most up to 20yrs ago, in their adulthood as well.
We could do with a few of these determined women about the place today.
Great idea, but sorry to see their partners unrecognised when they served side by side. Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen and Elizabeth O’Farrell and Shelia (Julia) Grennan – “Eirebrushed” our play on 1916 lesbian and gay heroes is on in Players Theatre TCD May 2-7th 730pm http://www.gaytheatre.ie
Specifying some theatre as “gay” seems superfluous; wouldn’t “straight theatre” be more unusual and unique realistically?
Happily not just as Irish or American is equally valid. It’s our 13th season heading past 3500 performances and companies from 5 continents who see its relevance, importance and artistic identity. Pop along in May!
Here’s why you’ll see these women on buses all over Ireland
(but you won’t see them underneath them)
It’s not doing Anything for Anybody. What’s the Point. Surely we can invest money in things for people.
I’d recognise David Rooneys artwork anywhere. Stunning as always.
Pearce was a woman
Mná na hÉireann…like omg lol
See the pols where around in 1916 too
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