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Japanese foreign minister boycotts G-20 dinner in protest against Russia
Hayashi is visiting the Indonesian island of Bali for a two-day meeting of the G-20 foreign ministers that began Thursday.
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Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Happo-en in Tokyo on May 23, 2022.
(AFP/Philip Fong)
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi did not show up to a welcome dinner of the Group of 20 major economies on Thursday in protest against his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov's attendance, according to a Japanese government official.
Hayashi is visiting the Indonesian island of Bali for a two-day meeting of the G-20 foreign ministers that began Thursday.
Lavrov is attending the meeting, his first attendance at a multilateral gathering involving the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Foreign ministers from the Group of 20 faced a tough task of overcoming a divide among member states to address global challenges including food shortages posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine as they started a two-day meeting in Bali on Thursday.
With the members adopting different stances on Moscow's war, there are concerns that rifts between Western countries and other participants such as China, India and the meeting's host Indonesia would widen if some ministers walk out as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi may issue a statement when the meeting wraps up, but a joint document is highly unlikely given diverse views around the table on the Ukrainian crisis, according to a Japanese official.
Lavrov, meeting counterparts from countries critical of the war in a multilateral gathering for the first time since the invasion in February, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected to exchange words at Friday's sessions, where the ministers will discuss cooperation in dealing with rising global inflation.
A bilateral meeting, however, is not planned, according to the US State Department.
Retno is welcoming other ministers at a dinner Thursday evening, with substantive discussions to be held the next day in the Nusa Dua area.
At a meeting of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington in April, the US, Canadian and European delegations left their seats when Russian officials, including Finance Minister Anton Siluanov who joined virtually, were about to speak. Japan did not join the boycott.
