The Russian foreign minister left the G20 meeting of leading economies early after telling his counterparts that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not responsible for a global hunger crisis and that sanctions to isolate Russia would amount to a declaration of war.
Friday’s meeting was Sergei Lavrov’s first direct confrontation with Western leaders since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and he accused the West of frenzied criticism of what he called Moscow’s justified actions.
In a stern if brief speech at the Indonesia-hosted Bali meeting, this year’s G20 leader Lavrov said: “When the West doesn’t want talks but wants Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield – because both opinions have been expressed – then maybe there is nothing to discuss with the West.”
The veteran Russian diplomat, who sat at the Saudi Arabia-Mexico meeting, also accused the West of pressuring Ukraine to “use its guns” in the fighting. He walked out as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock began to speak.
Baerbock later said, “The fact that [Lavrov] spent a large part of the negotiations not in the room but outside it underlines that there is not an inch of willingness on the Russian side to talk.” She claimed that the mood in the room was 19 to 1 against Russia’s invasion, even if there were disagreements over sanctions.
Lavrov claimed he came to Bali to see “how the West breathes”. It was obvious that the West was not using the G20 for the purposes for which they were created, Lavrov said. Participants from developing countries did not support this approach, he claimed.
“Aggressors, invaders, occupiers. We heard some of those things today,” he said, describing speeches by his Western peers. He said some of the speeches were made for theatrical effects, citing Boris Johnson as a prime example. “Well, he resigned, so be it,” Lavrov said. “Everyone said Russia must be isolated. But so far his own party has isolated Boris Johnson.”
Much of the meeting and sideline discussions were taken up by efforts to persuade Russia to allow the export of Ukrainian stocks of grain through an independently monitored secure naval corridor in the Black Sea. But the talks, largely led by Turkey and the UN, have been going on for weeks without a breakthrough.
Lavrov said: “Ukraine should stop blockading its ports, demine them or ensure passage through the minefields.”
After that, Russia and Turkey would ensure the safety of the cargo ships outside Ukrainian sovereign territory so they could advance further into the Mediterranean Sea, he said. But a meeting in Bali between Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu did not bring an immediate breakthrough.
Lavrov denied that the dispute was a key factor in the broader global grain shortage, saying the blocked grain accounted for 1% of global supply.
Western diplomats say Russia sees stealing Ukrainian grain and blocking its exports as measures aimed at weakening Ukraine’s economy and increasing the cost to the West of subsidizing the ailing country. At a plenary session, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Moscow to let Ukrainian grain out into the world.
An official said Blinken contacted Russia directly, saying: “To our Russian colleagues: Ukraine is not your country. His grain is not your grain. Why are you blocking the ports? You should let the grain out.”
Lavrov said again that Russia could not export its own grain because of Western sanctions, for example because ships were not insured or could not call at foreign ports.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hit back by saying EU sanctions “do not prohibit the import of Russian goods or fertilizers, nor payment for such Russian exports”. Russia, he said, had entered a breadbasket of the world and turned the Black Sea shipping lanes into a war zone.
Western leaders declined to take part in a group photo with Lavrov, but said their presence at the meeting, as opposed to a full boycott, shows a greater willingness to make their case, rather than assuming other neutral states are on their side.
Baerbock, for example, said before the meeting: “I am here as German foreign minister with my European colleagues to demonstrate that we are not leaving the international stage to Russia.”
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Lavrov will have taken note of the stance not of the West but of other major powers such as China, Saudi Arabia and India. Lavrov met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, told him about “carrying out the main missions of the special military operation” in Ukraine and repeated the Kremlin’s rhetoric that its goal was to “denazify” the country.
Lavrov’s visit to Bali was also intended to prepare for a possible trip by Vladimir Putin to November’s G20 summit. It is unclear whether Putin will attend in person or via video.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss left the meeting early to return to London to campaign for the Prime Minister’s office. She left a Foreign Office official, Sir Tim Barrow, to represent the United Kingdom.