As of: February 24, 2024, 5:13 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Press
Split
Russia should stop the war, demanded Foreign Minister Baerbock at the G20 summit on Wednesday.
She addressed her Russian counterpart directly – not without reason.
Rio de Janeiro – Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine almost two years ago – and could end it again.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) made a corresponding demand on Wednesday (February 21) at a G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
It was probably not without reason that the Green politician addressed her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov directly: the 73-year-old has a habit of seemingly demonstratively leaving the hall before Baerbock's speeches.
Baerbock’s appeal directly to Lavrov: “End this war”
This year, Baerbock addressed the Russian Foreign Minister directly at the G20 meeting.
“If you care about human lives, if you care about your own people, Russian children and young people, you must end this war now,” the Green politician said, addressing Lavrov, who was sitting three seats to her left.
“If Russia were to end this war now, the path to peace and justice would be wide open tomorrow,” the German foreign minister added.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) (in the background with the German flag) and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov (foreground right, out of focus) are worlds apart (archive photo March 2023).
© Imago/Florian Gaertner/photothek
Shortly before the start of the Ukraine war, Baerbock and Lavrov shook hands at a joint press conference in Moscow in January 2022, as press photos show.
They are pictures from other times.
A few days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and since then there has been an icy diplomatic silence between the Kremlin and Berlin.
When the German Federal Foreign Minister began her speech at a G20 meeting in Indonesia in July 2022, Lavrov had already rushed out of the meeting room.
The diplomatic scandal had a long-lasting impact.
Lavrov has already left the hall several times: “Not there to listen to others”
Diplomats had told the AFP news agency about the incident in Indonesia that the Russian Foreign Minister left the hall “in protest” during Baerbock's speech.
However, it is not finally clear whether the minister actually went to the G20 meeting because of Baerbock's speech.
“The fact that the Russian Foreign Minister spent a large part of the negotiations here not in the room, but outside the room, underlines that there is currently not an inch of willingness on the part of the Russian government to talk,” Baerbock himself analyzed the incident.
The behavior of the Russian Foreign Minister was not an isolated case: At a ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the end of November last year in the North Macedonian capital Skopje, Lavrov had already left the conference room when Baerbock gave her speech.
The Foreign Minister then addressed the Russian politician's behavior directly.
As at other meetings, he is obviously only in the room “when he speaks himself, but not to listen to others.” Back then, too, the Green politician had called for Moscow to immediately stop the war of aggression against Ukraine.
(bme with material from dpa)