G20: EAM Jaishankar, Russian FM Lavrov to touch on regional topics including "developments in Ukraine"

Moscow [Russia], March 1 (ANI): Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that the country's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will touch on a number of regional topics, including "developments in Ukraine" during Lavrov's visit to India for the G20.   

"As part of the visit’s bilateral events, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will discuss ways to further advance cooperation in key areas, as well as coordinate the schedule of upcoming contacts. The main thematic blocks include trade, investment, transport and logistics cooperation, the use of national currencies in mutual settlements, and promising projects in the energy sector.

"The ministers will exchange views on topical international matters, including interaction under India’s SCO chairmanship and G20 presidency, as well as coordination of approaches in the UN, BRICS and RIC. They will also touch on a number of regional topics, including the creation of security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, the current state of Afghanistan, and developments in Ukraine," it added.

Russia supports India’s G20 presidency in its commitment to promote a unifying agenda that will restore confidence in multilateral diplomacy and prevent the fragmentation of the global economy, as per the statement. 

“We share the relevance of India's stated priorities: ensuring inclusive and sustainable economic growth; accelerating progress towards the achievement of sustainable development goals; reforming multilateral institutions; digital modernisation; and increasing women’s economic engagement,” the statement read.

Russia is active on all G20 ministerial tracks, supports India’s effort to improve working mechanisms and create specialised processes to respond to natural disasters and launch start-ups. Russia is also ready to make a significant contribution to making progress in all these areas. “We aim to work together with our Indian colleagues to achieve the desired result, showing the greatest possible flexibility,” it said. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday arrived in India for the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting (G20 FMM). Lavrov will also attend Raisina Dialogue 2023.

"Welcome to India! FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia @mfa_russia and @UNDESA Under Secretary General Li Junhua arrive in New Delhi for #G20FMM. FM Lavrov will also attend #Raisina2023," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted on Tuesday.

The upcoming event’s theme is 'One Earth, One Family, One Future'. During the event, Lavrov will meet his Indian Counterpart S Jaishankar.

Russia considers the G20 a prestigious forum for the world's leading economies, a significant discussion platform on global governance, where balanced consensus decisions should be made in the interests of all humankind. Its participants account for about 80 per cent of global GDP, international trade, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as two-thirds of the world's population, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The statement said that the importance and role of the foreign ministers’ meetings in G20 activities is steadily growing. This format was launched in 2012. The key goal is to exchange views on current international issues and challenges.

The meeting this year will be concentrated on multilateralism, energy and food security, and international development. The agenda also includes counterterrorism, labour resources, humanitarian assistance and reduction of the impacts of natural disasters.

“During the regular foreign ministers’ meeting, we intend to firmly and openly talk about the reasons and instigators of the current serious problems in world politics and the global economy. We will focus on the attempts by the West to take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands. We will also concentrate on its striving to continue receiving unilateral rent, in part, through unequal trade and violent interference in the affairs of sovereign states,” the ministry said.

We are set to clearly state Russia’s assessments of the current security, energy and food situation. We will present an unbiased factual picture of the act of terrorism, the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the EU and NATO zone of responsibility, and the illegal seizing of Russian humanitarian fertiliser shipments designated for African and other needy countries, according to the official statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministery said it welcomes the initiative of the Indian Presidency on organising a special G20 pavilion at the International Book Fair (February 25-March 5 of this year) in New Delhi and that Russia plans to hold an exhibition at the Fair on the commonality of world outlooks and the mutual influence of Leo Tolstoy (195th birth anniversary) and Mahatma Gandhi (75th anniversary of this tragic death). (ANI)