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German, Russian foreign ministers meeting at G20 not up for discussion
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A meeting between German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, while in Indonesia for the Group of 20 (G20) is not up for discussion due to the war in Ukraine, a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
Baerbock will attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Thursday and Friday, said the ministry spokesperson.
Denis Tetiushin, spokesperson at the Russian embassy in Jakarta, confirmed to Reuters that Lavrov would also join the ministers’ meeting in Bali.
The meeting, hosted by current G20 chair Indonesia takes place from July 7-8.
Last week, Lavrov said that a new "iron curtain" was descending between Russia and the West after Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.
"As far as an iron curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending," Lavrov told reporters, quoted by AFP.
"They should just be careful not to pinch anything," he quipped.
"The process has begun," he said after talks with his counterpart from Belarus.
Lavrov said Russia had not had any relations with the European Union since 2014, when Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine.
He said Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels "from now on".
"The EU is not at all interested in understanding our interests," Lavrov added.
"It is interested in what has been decided in Brussels. And what has been decided in Washington has been decided in Brussels."
On Tuesday, Lavrov will fly to Hanoi for a two-day visit to Vietnam before heading to the G20 meeting, the Vietnamese government said.
The visit, at the invitation of Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, comes as the two nations mark the 10th anniversary of their "comprehensive strategic partnership", the government said in a statement .
Russia is Vietnam's biggest arms supplier and its companies are involved in several major energy projects in the country.
The two nations have close ties dating back to the Soviet era and Vietnam has not so far condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation".
In April, Vietnam voted against a resolution to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over the war.
Trade between Vietnam and Russia rose 25 percent last year to US$7.1 billion, the statement said.
