NEW DELHI - Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
met his Russian counterpart
Sergey Lavrov
briefly on Thursday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting, the first one-on-one meeting between the two top diplomats since Russia began its invasion of large scale from Ukraine more than a year ago.
The unexpected meeting came as the Russian government used the G-20 foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi, the Indian capital, to accuse Western nations of "
blackmail and threats
. "
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center, top) walks past Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, India,(Olivier Douliery/Pool Photo via AP)
In their meeting, Blinken made three points to Lavrov, a senior State Department official told reporters:
The United States would continue to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia "for as long as it takes";
Russia should rejoin the New START nuclear arms control treaty, from which it recently withdrew, and abide by its terms;
and that Russia should release
Paul Whelan,
a US citizen who the US says is wrongfully imprisoned.
The official did not specify who initiated the meeting between the two diplomats.
Earlier on Thursday, Blinken used the G-20 meeting to call on Russia to
withdraw
from Ukraine in the interest of international peace and stability.
In addition, he held individual talks with the main diplomats of the G-20 countries, with the aim of obtaining greater support for Ukraine, which is trying to repel the attack by Russian troops and is preparing for a possible new Russian offensive this spring.
"We must continue to call on Russia to end its aggressive war and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability," Blinken told a closed-door meeting of the group in the morning, according to a text. of their statements made available to journalists by the State Department.
Sergei Lavrov, arrives at a New Delhi hotel on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Money SHARMA/AFP)
"Unfortunately, this meeting has been marred again by Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine," he added.
Blinken said on Wednesday, before flying from Uzbekistan to India, that he was not scheduled to meet Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, or
Qin Gang
, China's foreign minister.
Blinken and Lavrov had avoided direct confrontation since the war began in February last year.
Following a meeting between Lavrov and Qin on the sidelines of the war, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a harsh statement stating that Western nations meddled in "the internal affairs of other countries, to impose unilateral approaches through blackmail." and threats, and oppose the
democratization
of international relations".
Earlier on Thursday, Russian state media downplayed the chances of a meeting between Blinken and Lavrov.
The two men "sat far" from each other at the first plenary session of the G-20 meeting, Russian state media reported.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said a meeting between the two would not take place because "destruction is part of the logic of US foreign policy in general," the state news agency Tass reported.
Lavrov said the meeting would not end in the usual joint communiqué due to
disagreements
over the war in Ukraine.
Dialogue
Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
said in a video keynote address to diplomats that while he understood that the discussions "would be affected by current geopolitical tensions" - in clear reference to the war in Ukraine - he hoped that to keep the focus on the
global crises
affecting the many developing nations of the world.
He cited economic problems, climate change and the pandemic.
However, the war in Ukraine dominated the morning breakout session and other parts of the meeting.
Blinken met alone with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, and the two "discussed how to mitigate the global impacts of Russia's illegal war in Ukraine" and "US-Indian cooperation in the Indo-Pacific," he said. the State Department in a statement.
The second sentence is a reference to strategic efforts in Asia, including military coordination, to counter China.
On Wednesday in Uzbekistan, his second stop on a two-day trip to Central Asia,
Blinken said the Biden administration saw "zero evidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin of Russia was willing to enter into serious peace talks.
c.2023 The New York Times Company
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