Rifts at Atlanta talks likely to prevent a joint G20 communique
The traditional “family photo” that opens the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting was abruptly cancelled in the US after Australia, the United Kingdom and a host of other nations refused to appear beside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Secretary of state Marco Rubio scrapped the snapshot after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the picture.
About one-third of the countries at the talks made it known they would not appear beside any Russian representatives. European Union nations had made clear they would boycott any photograph that included the Russians.
Germany’s foreign affairs minister, Johann Wadephul, warned ahead of Friday’s session: “In no case will there be a family photo with European partners and Mr Lavrov together because … there is no normality with Russia.” The UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, promised the same. “We do not engage in that way with the Russians and have not for a number of years,” he said.
Rubio nonetheless opened the talks in Atlanta with an appeal for unity on the issues that threaten international security and trade. “We are in a critical moment,” Rubio told his colleagues. “We are facing a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises.”
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in front of Lavrov during the meeting’s opening session and said Russia’s illegal war had affected international markets and worsened global food security. A spokesperson for Wong said Australia supported the US decision to cancel the group photo. “Australia has been clear and consistent: we will not normalise Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus at the G20 remains on the important work before us and addressing the challenges facing the global economy.”
The Guardian described the schism in Atlanta as further evidence of the rupture caused by the Trump administration’s attempt to reintegrate Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, into the international community despite Putin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
Diplomats who attended the opening session described it as cordial but said Russia’s position on Ukraine is unyielding — as is its opposition to Poland’s membership in the G20.
Those disagreements, which also include the Trump administration’s decision not to invite G20 member South Africa over the objections of others, will probably prevent the foreign ministers from producing a joint communique when the meetings wrap up on Saturday, participants said.
The rifts did not surprise Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, who is representing his country at its first G20 meeting as a guest. “We have wars going on and we have participants in those wars around the table, so it’s very difficult to agree a common line,” he told reporters.
Several participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the closed-door talks, said all had agreed to try to overcome their differences despite the long odds and to work to make next month’s G20 leaders’ summit a success. President Donald Trump is hosting the summit in Florida.
Ukraine, which is not a G20 member but was invited to attend previous meetings, was not invited this year. US officials said that was a deliberate choice to include only formal members of the group. Poland, which is also not a member, is seeking formal membership with US support.
Missing from the invitation list was South Africa, a G20 founding member and the only African country in the group. South Africa is embroiled in several disputes with the Trump administration, and when it chaired the G20 last year, top US officials including Trump and Rubio shunned the meetings it hosted. “We have consistently maintained that our nonparticipation is not voluntary,” said Phindile Kunene, a spokesperson for South African international relations minister Ronald Lamola.