Atlanta, Oct 30 — The presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta has exposed a widening split among Western governments over how to deal with Moscow, raising doubts about how much consensus the US-hosted grouping can reach on its economic agenda.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is chairing the two-day meeting on October 30 and 31, ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit that President Donald Trump will host in Miami in December. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to the summit, although it remains unclear whether he will attend.
Lavrov’s attendance has revived a debate over whether engaging Russian officials at international gatherings signals a return to business as usual while the war in Ukraine continues.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he would not avoid a group photograph with all participants, as dialogue was part of his job, but stressed there could be “no normalcy” with Moscow as long as the war continues.
“For the first several years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its European allies were united in refusing to return to ‘business as usual’ with Moscow, including by avoiding legitimizing it through normal diplomatic engagement,” Nicholas Lokker, an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, told RFE/RL.
“That consensus has since broken down,” he said.
The rift has surfaced before. At a G20 finance meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, in August, European delegates objected after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a bilateral meeting with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and insisted Siluanov be left out of that meeting’s family photo, Lokker said.
Ukraine’s absence adds to the friction. Washington limited invitations to formal G20 members, leaving Ukraine off the guest list.
James Lamond, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said Lavrov’s presence would make a substantive discussion of Ukraine difficult because Kyiv is not represented. “Anything of substance cannot be negotiated without Ukraine being represented,” he told RFE/RL.
Lamond said the talks were likely to be dominated by the wars in Ukraine and Iran, making it hard for ministers to focus on the G20’s economic priorities. Washington has said it wants to take the grouping “back to basics”, with an agenda centred on economic growth, deregulation, innovation, energy and trade.
Moscow has also voiced grievances. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said visas for the delegation were resolved only at the last minute, suggesting that “not everyone in Washington is happy” about Lavrov’s participation, RFE/RL reported.
Lavrov has said he intends to use the meeting to push for reform of global economic institutions and a more multipolar world order.
Whether the ministers will issue a joint statement or the US will release a chair’s summary at the end of the meeting is not yet known.
A meeting between Rubio and Lavrov in Atlanta has not been announced.