The top diplomats from the United States and Russia met briefly for the first time in more than a year, as officials from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies held meetings dominated by Russia's year-old invasion of Ukraine.
During the March 2 gathering in New Delhi, India, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock directly confronted her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, calling on Russia to return to compliance with the New START nuclear arms treaty and to resume dialogue with the United States.
"Unfortunately, one G20 member prevents all the other 19 from focusing all their efforts on these issues the G20 was created for," she told the meeting, according to the German delegation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed for G20 members to reach consensus on issues of particular concern to poorer countries. But disagreements over the Ukraine war resulted in ministers failing to agree even on a final communique.
The G20 is comprised of 19 countries and the European Union, and accounts for around 85 percent of the world's economy and two-thirds of its population.
The encounter between Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken lasted just 10 minutes on the sidelines of the gathering. According to unnamed U.S. officials, Blinken urged Lavrov to return Russia to New START and also told him that Washington was prepared to support Ukraine to defend itself for as long as it takes.
Blinken also brought up the case of Paul Whelan, an American who the United States says has been unjustly jailed in Russia for more than four years.
The official declined to characterize Lavrov's response.
The encounter was believed to be their first face-to-face conversation since before Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"We always remain hopeful that the Russians will reverse their decision and be prepared to engage in a diplomatic process that can lead to a just and durable peace, but I wouldn't say that coming out of this encounter there was any expectation that things will change in the near term," the unnamed U.S. official was quoted as saying.
Russian news agencies confirmed the two spoke, but said they did so while "on the move" and said there were no negotiations during the talk.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, meanwhile, said the two diplomats spoke briefly at the request of Blinken.
“There were neither talks nor a meeting,” Zakharova was quoted as saying by the state news agency TASS.
At a news conference after the gathering, Blinken said he had told Lavrov he would push for the war to end through diplomatic terms that Kyiv agrees to.
“End this war of aggression, engage in meaningful diplomacy that can produce a just and durable peace,” Blinken said he had told Lavrov. But, he noted that “President Putin has demonstrated zero interest in engaging, saying there is nothing to even talk about until Ukraine accepts the new territorial reality.”
Blinken also highlighted that 141 countries had voted to condemn Russia at the United Nations on the anniversary of the invasion.
Several members of the G20, including host India, China and South Africa, chose to abstain in that vote, however.
"There were divergences, there were differences, which we couldn't reconcile between various parties,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, referring to the Ukraine conflict.
Lavrov also held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the meeting. Many leaders in the G20 fear China may decide to supply Russia with arms to fight Ukraine and are hoping to convince Beijing to stay on the sidelines. U.S. officials have warned Beijing not to provide weapons to Moscow.
But in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry on the meeting between Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Moscow said the two sides were in agreement to reject "attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, to impose unilateral approaches through blackmail and threats, and to oppose the democratization of international relations."
There was no immediate statement from the Chinese side on the meeting.