G20 Foreign Minister’s Meet: Jaishankar Meets UK Foreign Secretary, Chinese Minister in India for 1st Time

Foreign ministers of G20 countries are meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday to deliberate on pressing global challenges amid escalating confrontation between Russia and the West over the Ukraine war.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will host US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang among others at the meeting.

Earlier today Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, where he reviewed the progress of the bilateral relationship between the two nations and exchanged views on the global situation.

On Tuesday night, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed in the national capital to attend the meeting. Lavrov is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday during which both sides are expected to carry out a comprehensive review of bilateral ties.

Here are the latest updates in the story:

– US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly are attending the G20 foreign ministers meeting today.

– This is Blinken’s first visit to India since the Ukraine war began last year. He came to India earlier in July 2021.

– Meanwhile, Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang will be visiting India for the first time. Earlier, former Chinese minister Wang Yi had visited New Delhi in 2019.

– European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajan, Australia’s Penny Wong, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Indonesia’s Retno Marsudi and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero are also among those attending the meeting.

– Japan’s foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is unlikely to attend due to his “scheduling conflict” with the parliament session. Hayashi’s visit was seen as important in the backdrop of a plan to have a foreign ministerial meeting of the Quad countries on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

– Similarly, South Korea’s foreign office earlier announced that its foreign minister would not participate in the New Delhi meeting. As per diplomatic sources, he would not be able to participate due to involvement in “domestic affairs”.

– People familiar with the visits of the top G20 foreign ministers said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is likely to hold a series of bilateral talks on Wednesday including with his counterparts from Russia and China.

– The G20 foreign ministers meeting is taking place days after a gathering of finance ministers and the Central Bank Governors of the G20 member countries in Bengaluru failed to come out with a joint communique over sharp differences between the Western powers and Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict.

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