US alienating countries with ‘Ukrainization’ of agenda – Moscow
The US and its allies are alienating nations that do not want to be involved in the Ukraine conflict by dragging the issue into every possible international event, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, in the run-up to the G20 Summit in India.
Lavrov criticized what he called the “Ukrainization of everything and anything” by the West, after attending the East Asia Summit in Indonesia on Thursday. Participant states resisted Washington’s pressure and asserted that their agenda did not include geopolitical issues and security crises, he noted during a press conference.
“Nations that want to deal with their specific affairs rather than engage in propaganda in support of the Kiev regime… are increasingly tired” of the Western strategy, the minister added.
The top diplomat maintained that Washington’s goals in Asia are to contain China and isolate Russia, and that regional players do not like the way the US imposes its policies on them.
This weekend, Lavrov will be heading the Russian delegation at the gathering of G20 leaders in New Delhi, as President Vladimir Putin has decided not to attend in person. Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta to discuss the impasse over a draft of the final statement, according to media reports.
Western nations want the draft to include a condemnation of Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, while Russia and China want the communique to state that G20 is not a forum for tackling such issues. India has proposed a compromise including both positions, but reportedly neither side has agreed to it.
Unless an agreement is reached, the event may end with no final communique, which would be a first in G20 history. Such an outcome may cause a “crisis of confidence” in the organization, Reuters has warned.
Indonesia faced a similar conundrum last year, when it held the rotating G20 presidency. The compromise ‘Bali Declaration’ said most of its members condemned the war and its consequences, but did not directly blame Russia, and acknowledged that there were different views on the situation. It added that while the G20 does not deal with security issues, they could have a significant effect on the global economy.
