US Secy Blinken speaks briefly with Lavrov at G-20 meeting sidelines; first ‘contact’ since Russia-Ukraine conflict

New Delhi [India], March 2 (ANI): US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Thursday spoke briefly with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the meeting of foreign minister of the Group of 20 nations here.

“US Secretary of State Blinken asked for ‘contact’ with Foreign Minister Lavrov, during the second session of G20 meet and they had the ‘contact’, there were no talks or full-fledged meeting,” according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zarkhova.
The meeting, was the first face-to-face meeting between the two foreign ministers since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began over a year ago and which triggered a rift between US-led Western countries and Russia.

Washington Post cited a senior State Department official familiar with the discussion to say, “During the less-than-10-minute exchange, Blinken urged Russia to reverse its decision to suspend cooperation in the New START nuclear arms treaty and accept a US proposal for the release of US citizen Paul Whelan.”

The US-based newspaper reported that Blinken also reaffirmed Washington’s support for Ukraine’s peace proposal that maintains the country’s territorial integrity, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

While addressing the presser in New Delhi, Lavrov said that the West refused to include Russia’s proposal on the need for an investigation of Nord Stream blasts in the G20 final declaration, according to Sputnik News Agency.

“They [Western countries] also refused to accept another fact in this context, which reflects the events that have taken place since then. I am referring to the terrorist act against the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Our proposal to include in the document the need for an impartial and honest investigation was categorically rejected by our Western partners,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov landed in New Delhi on Tuesday for a two-day meeting of the G20 FMM.

The minister addressing a press conference here said that the West insisted on reproducing the same text that was adopted in Bali last year mentioning the situation in Ukraine.

“The West insisted on reproducing the text on the situation around Ukraine, which was agreed at the G20 summit last year in Bali, completely ignoring our arguments that a lot of events have happened since then, including the sincere confessions of Mrs. [ex-German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, Mr. [former French President Francois] Hollande, Mr. [ex-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky himself that none of them was going to fulfill the Minsk agreements and the purpose of signing the Minsk agreements from the point of view of Western interests was to gain time to pump Ukraine with weapons and prepare it for war against Russia, ” Sputnik quoted Lavrov saying.

Lavrov said that “Western colleagues were speechless when they heard about Kiev’s discrimination against Russian culture and language in Ukraine on the sidelines of the event. Instead, he said, they prefer to start a conversation with the “Russia invaded Ukraine” argument,” Sputnik reported.

He also said that the final declaration couldn’t be agreed upon due to a dispute between G20 members on the Ukraine conflict.

Meanwhile, Blinken is also scheduled to participate in the Raisina Dialogue during his New Delhi visit.

Earlier today Blinken took to Twitter to post, “I went to the #G20 today with two imperatives: First, to ensure that the G20 — with India at the helm — advances our shared goals, and second, to demonstrate how the US, together with our partners, is acting to meet the needs of the world. We succeeded at both.

“The White House in a statement on Wednesday said that during his three-day trip to India Blinken will reaffirm the strengthening of the bilateral relationship.

“They will talk about our strategic partner partnership but really focus on how we’re working together in the Asian Quad, in the G20, what we’re doing on defence cooperation and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the prime minister’s office,” Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, had said.

The US Secretary who arrived here after a visit to Uzbekistan in Central Asia will also is also set to attend a foreign ministers’ meeting of the Quad on Friday.

The FMM is the second in the list of ministerial meetings under the Indian Presidency of this year’s G20 summit and is being presided by Jaishankar.