Diplomatic barbs were exchanged once again between the United States and Russia on Friday, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came face to face at the G-20 summit in India.
The meeting was the first time chief diplomats had engaged in person since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion more than a year ago, and the brief meeting appeared to do nothing to warm up the frosty relationship.
Speaking at a security conference in New Delhi with key Indo-Pacific allies India, Australia and Japan — a partnership dubbed the Quad — Blinken warned that standing up to Russia is more important than ever if international allies are to keep peace elsewhere in the world. world .
This combination of photos shows Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, respectively, attending the G-20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool photo via AP)
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“The principles that underlie the whole international system that are needed to try to keep the peace, the stability that arose from two world wars are being questioned, they are being attacked together with Ukraine,” he said on Friday. “If we allow Russia to do with impunity what she is doing in Ukraine, then that is a message to would-be aggressors around the world that they could get away with it too.”
Lavrov in turn accused the United States of employing “double standards” in challenging Russia’s actions in Ukraine and pointed to previous international operations the United States has conducted in places such as Iraq, Libya and Yugoslavia when he cited a “threat to national interest” to justify military interventions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, top center, walks past Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the G-20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool photo via AP)
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India’s foreign minister expressed frustration on Thursday after the G-20 summit was derailed by divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine instead of focusing on issues affecting the global south such as climate change, food security and the inflation.
However, Blinken argued on Friday that strengthening alliances with “like-minded” nations was the only way to address the most pressing problems people face today, as well as to sustain defensive positions.
“I think not only are we not distracted; on the contrary, we are more deeply engaged than ever before, and the Quad is one of the most critical vehicles for that engagement,” he told reporters alongside Quad allies.
From left to right, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attend a quadruple panel of ministers at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi on Friday March 3, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool photo via AP)
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The Japanese prime minister also issued a thinly veiled warning to China when he said: “We have agreed that unilateral changes to the status quo by force such as [Russia’s war] should not be allowed in the Indo-Pacific region.”
“We also agreed that this development makes it even more important to work towards a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Friday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
