US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Indian capital, New Delhi, on Wednesday, to attend the G20 Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting. The US diplomat while speaking with reporters in Tashkent earlier, said, he has no plans to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the G20 Foreign Affairs Meeting in New Delhi.
“No plans to see either (China or Russia’s foreign ministers) at the G20, although I suspect that we will certainly be in group sessions of one kind or another together,” Blinken told reporters in the Uzbek capital.
The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting comes days after India hosted the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru in the Indian state of Karnataka. India’s G20 presidency comes at a crucial time when the war in Ukraine continues to wage on. The meeting brings leaders from all the major economies under one umbrella, however, there are differences in the members of the grouping over the war.
The conflict in Eastern Europe emerged as one of the major points of discussion during the finance ministers’ meeting. As there was no consensus, the meeting had to be concluded without a joint communique and only a “chair’s summary and outcome document” which is said to simply summarise the talks and noted disagreements was released.
Blinken arrived in India after wrapping up his visit to the Central Asian Nations of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
His first visit was to Kazakhstan where he met his counterpart. Blinken on Tuesday held talks with Kazakh foreign minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Later, Blinken took part in a meeting of the “C5+1” diplomatic platform, which represents the US approach to Central Asia, jointly engaging all five Central Asian governments, namely Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
During his visit to Tashkent, Blinken welcomed the reform agenda of the country in his talks with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in a closed-door meeting.
(With inputs from agencies)
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