Russia will block the final statement of this month’s G20 summit if it does not reflect Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, so participants can issue a partial or non-binding communiqué, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. News.ro reports with reference on Reuters. .

“There will be no general statement on behalf of all members if our position is not reflected,” Lavrov told students at the prestigious State Institute of International Relations in Moscow.

Lavrov said that the West raised the issue of Ukraine during the preparatory meetings for the summit, but Russia replied that for it “the topic is closed”.

He accused the West of undermining international institutions by imposing its own agenda and suggested that if a consensus could not be reached at the G20 meeting, the G20 president could issue a non-binding communique.

“Another option is to adopt a document that would focus on specific decisions in the sphere of competence of the G20, and let everyone say the rest on their own behalf,” Lavrov explained.

Sergei Lavrov, who has been Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister since 2004, will represent Russia at a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries on September 9-10 in New Delhi.

Putin has not traveled abroad since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine.

The Kremlin is portraying the war in Ukraine, which began after Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022, as an existential battle against the brazen West, which Putin says wants to dismember Russia and take control of its vast natural resources.

The West denies any such intentions, but says it wants Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield to stop its imperialist ambitions, and has imposed several rounds of sweeping economic sanctions in response to the invasion.

Other major powers, such as China, India and Brazil, have called for peace but have also reserved the right to establish their own relations with Moscow. China has accused the West of fueling the war by supplying weapons to Ukraine. (News.ro)