Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has flown into Indonesia's resort island of Bali for a meeting of G 20 foreign ministers, which is set to be overshadowed by tensions triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The G 20 gathering takes place in host country Indonesia, which this year has had to deal with the balancing act of running a global summit buffeted by geopolitical pressures and a global food crisis blamed for the war.
Foreign diplomats descended into the tropical island on Thursday, and there was tight security in Bali's Nusa Dua area, where the summit is being held.
According to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Russia must not be allowed to use the G 20 meeting as a platform for its war in Ukraine ahead of her arrival in Bali.
It is in the interest of us all to make sure that international law is respected and adhered to. Baerbock said that is the common denominator.
The summit will see the first face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin's long-serving foreign minister, Lavrov, and some of Russia's biggest critics since the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow called a special military operation Lavrov arrived in Bali and planned to meet some G 20 counterparts on the sidelines of the summit, but ministers including Baerbock and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have ruled out meeting Lavrov, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The Group of 20 includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine and rolled out sanctions, but also countries like China, Indonesia, India and South Africa that have been more muted in their response.
Some officials from Europe and the United States stressed that the Bali summit would not be business as usual with a spokesman for the German foreign minister saying G 7 countries would coordinate their response to Lavrov in Bali.
During the G20 finance meeting in Washington in April, top officials from Britain, Canada and the United States walked out on Russian representatives.
Despite early talk of boycotting subsequent G 20 meetings, analysts say Western nations seem to have decided it would be counterproductive to cede the floor to Russia.
Russia is accused of stoking a global food crisis and worsening inflation by blocking shipments of Ukrainian grain, as discussed in the two-day meeting on energy and food security. Russia is ready to facilitate unhindered exports of grain.