WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – This week, State secretary Antony Blinken will meet with his Chinese counterpart at a summit of the foreign ministers of the Group of 20 countries, which is certain to widen divisions over Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
While Blinken’s discussions with Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, will center on strained U.S.-China relations, the Ukraine war and its implications for global energy and food security are nearly guaranteed to dominate the larger G-20 summit in Indonesia. Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, will also be present, making it the first time in over 6 months that both of them would be in the same city, much alone in the same room.
Tuesday’s announcement by the State Department that Blinken will see Wang in Bali received little attention when it came to the idea of his meeting Lavrov, whom the United States has avoided since the February invasion of Ukraine. In the lead-up to the Ukraine war, American officials have charged Lavrov as well as other Russian diplomats with showing a lack of seriousness.
There won’t be any “business as usual” with Russia while it is still in Ukraine, according to the Biden administration, and there won’t be any official talks between Lavrov and Blinken in Bali, according to American officials. The likelihood of a chance meeting, which would be their first since their previous meeting in Geneva in January, could not, however, be ruled out.
The Bali conference, like many previous international diplomatic gatherings, will center on Ukraine as the attendees prepare for a G-20 summit that will also be held in Indonesia in November. But the G-20 meeting will be different from the Western-dominated NATO and G-7 conferences that were held in Europe last week.
The United States and Europe oppose Russia’s invasion, but China and many other partners, including South Africa, India, Brazil, and many other significant emerging countries, have refused to join them. Some people have flatly refused to join Western calls to denounce the fight, which the United States and its allies view as an assault on the global rules-based system that has predominated since the conclusion of World War II.
The disagreement has created the conditions for a potentially tense preparation meeting before the summit in November, raising doubts about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance. The United States has made it clear that it does not feel Vladimir Putin should attend, but it has pushed the Indonesian hosts to invite Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine should the Russian leader visit.
Meanwhile, tensions between China and the U.S. are at an all-time high on a variety of topics, including trade, human rights, Taiwan, and South China Sea conflicts.
Blinken’s conversation with Wang was made public after a phone chat with Secretary Of the treasury Janet Yellen in which the Chinese representative to the trade negotiations with Washington voiced concern over American tariffs on Chinese goods. Both parties made no mention of any developments in the dispute. Blinken will travel from Bali to Bangkok, Thailand, to make up for a visit he had to cancel last year due to COVID-19 concerns, according to ABC NEWS.
