Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Wednesday he had no plans to meet the foreign ministers of Russia and China at the G20 meeting in New Delhi.Blinken has toured Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and will visit the Indian capital for the G20 meeting, where Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine will be one of the main topics on the agenda.The meeting will take place in the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.“We do not plan to meet any of them at the G20, although we will most likely participate in group meetings of one type or another together,” Blinken told reporters, speaking in the capital of Uzbekistan.During a trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Blinken met with representatives of the five Central Asian countries, which, remember, have close trade ties with Beijing.Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow would not reconsider suspending its participation in the New START treaty until the United States changed its policy towards Ukraine.
This was reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.According to Ryabkov, Russia is ready to communicate and exchange information with Washington on START, but sees no need for regular dialogue at this time.
Recall that during a trip to Central Asia, Secretary Blinken stressed the attention with which the United States monitors compliance with the sanctions imposed by Washington against Moscow in response to its war of aggression against Ukraine.
“We are monitoring sanctions compliance very closely and are constantly talking with a number of countries, including our C5 partners, about the economic fallout (wars),” Blinken told a news conference after meeting with officials. of the five Central Asian states in the capital of Kazakhstan. .According to the foreign secretary, Washington is issuing licenses to give companies time to reduce their relations with Russian companies subject to Western sanctions.