NEW DELHI: The United States’ withdrawal and Russia’s accusations against the West led the G20 Foreign Ministers to acknowledge the growing geopolitical divisions fueling a climate of distrust, during their meeting in South Africa, which concluded in Johannesburg and notably lacked the customary group photograph.The summary of the chair by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola “recognised the widening geopolitical divisions which have contributed to fostering a climate of distrust, thus threatening to unravel progress we have made to address pressing global challenges such as poverty, climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and armed conflict.” Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he would not attend the G20 meetings due to South Africa’s focus on promoting diversity and equity, which he criticized as “very bad things.” The US was represented at the meeting by the Chargé d’Affaires at its embassy in Pretoria Dana Brown. European leaders and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went after each other at the meet. Lavrov, in his speeches, accused the West of attempting to dominate the world through neo-colonialism and “white supremacy” against the Global South. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy sharply criticised Lavrov’s remarks, calling them “tired fabrications” and pointing out that Lavrov walked out when the British minister spoke.Lammy remarked that Russia had failed to learn, expressing disappointment that Lavrov offered no sympathy for the victims of Russian aggression and no readiness for a lasting peace.South Africa, a longstanding friend and fellow BRICS partner, condemned both the Russian and US governments for holding a peace negotiation session on the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian participation.
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