G20 foreign ministers meet in Delhi amid geopolitical tensions

DELHI — G20 foreign ministers met in India’s capital Delhi amid heightened geopolitical tensions sparked by a war in Ukraine that is hampering consensus among the world’s largest economies.
The meeting is expected to feature US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and others.
Besides the war in Ukraine, an additional factor in aggravating tensions between Washington and Beijing was the downing of a suspected Chinese reconnaissance balloon off the US east coast in February.
India’s foreign ministry said the war in Ukraine would be an important topic for Thursday’s talks.
“Indeed, given the nature and development of the situation in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, this will naturally be an important point of discussion,” Indian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vinay Mohan Kvatra said on Wednesday during a meeting. of a press conference.
India is chairing the G20 this year.
However, analysts say the meeting of foreign ministers could rekindle the tension that marred a similar meeting of G20 finance ministers last week, which ended without a joint statement on Chinese and Russian objections to the language. condemning Moscow’s aggression.
At a meeting of foreign ministers, the United States and its allies will press for the group to take a hard line on the war in Ukraine.
The European Union said the success of the meeting could be judged by what it would do about the conflict in Ukraine.
“This war must be condemned,” European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Delhi. “I hope, I am sure that India’s diplomatic potential will be used to make Russia understand that this war must be ended.”
Russia, for its part, said it views the G20 as a prestigious forum where “balanced consensus decisions should be made for the benefit of all humanity.”
Given the deep divisions, India faces the difficult task of forging a common position following the talks, analysts say.
“It looks like it won’t be easy. There will be a lot of debate at the Ukraine meeting,” said Harsh Pant, vice president for research and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi.
Despite the diplomatic challenges, India expressed hope that participants in the meeting will focus on issues facing many countries such as food and energy security and fertilizer security, which are the issues that Delhi promotes during his presidency.
“What kind of understanding they are getting, not only about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but also about its impact on the rest of the world, about the problems facing developing countries – that’s also important to focus on said Kvatra.