Who are in
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, France’s Catherine Colonna, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly are among those attending the India-hosted meeting.
China’s presence
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will also attend the G20 event during which he is expected to hold his first bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar.
While announcing Qin’s visit, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing stood ready to work with all parties to ensure the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting sends a positive signal on “multilateralism, food and energy security and development cooperation”.
This will be Qin’s first visit to India after he succeeded Wang Yi as Foreign Minister in December last year.
Relations between China and India have virtually frozen ever since the eastern Ladakh military standoff between the two countries in May 2020.
But…
Japanese media reported that foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is unlikely to attend due to his “scheduling conflict” with the parliament session. Hayashi’s visit was seen as important in the backdrop of a plan to have a foreign ministerial meeting of the Quad countries on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.
South Korea, another important East Asian partner, will also be represented by a junior minister as foreign minister Park Jin is busy with “domestic affairs”.
A stormy session likely
That the G20 meeting will be a stormy one became obvious on Tuesday with the EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell saying he will convey a strong message on Russia’s “blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter, and its global consequences, in particular on energy and food insecurity” and the Russian foreign ministry declaring Lavrov will make an open statement about “causes and masterminds” of problems in global politics.