In typical arrogant fashion, the U.S. and its Western allies had every intention of barreling into the July 7-8 meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, to lay down the law (or, better, “rules”) and try to align developing nations against Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine” and against China as well. Indonesia, as the current president of the G20, is hosting the meeting, strongly backed by India, which will take over the presidency in December of this year. Also attending are other developing nations that have remained neutral on the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
Indonesia and India have indicated that they want the meeting to focus on multilateralism and the real challenges they and other developing nations face—economic dislocation and food and energy security among them. A number of bilateral meetings have already taken place today, including between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and between Wang Yi and Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, to discuss these and other crucial issues. (See separate report)
However, at a special July 5 briefing on Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s planned trip to Indonesia and Thailand, State Department officials had blustered that the G20 foreign ministers had better not be prepared for a “business as usual” summit, given Sergey Lavrov’s presence and Russia’s alleged crimes against humanity in Ukraine. These officials reported that Western governments had decided not to boycott the meeting so as not to give Russia the floor “unopposed.”
