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THE TOP RUSSIAN and US envoys gathered today for a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia, with the host immediately telling them the Ukraine war must end and differences be resolved through negotiations.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov joined their colleagues for the start of day-long talks, with Washington seeking to gain support from the world’s top economies to pressure Moscow over the invasion of its neighbour.
“It clearly cannot be business as usual when it comes to Russia’s involvement and engagement in enterprises like the G20,” a senior US official said ahead of the meeting.
In comments to open the meeting on the resort island of Bali, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi directly addressed the war.
“It is our responsibility to end the war sooner than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not the battlefield,” Marsudi said, with Lavrov in the room.
While in Bali, Blinken will also seek to reopen dialogue with Beijing in talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the first in months after tensions strained over issues including Taiwan.
The G20 meeting is looking to tackle the war’s impact on food and energy security, as well as the global economy’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the ravages of climate change.
But Blinken will shun a direct meeting with Lavrov, instead pointing the finger at Moscow for triggering global food and energy crises.
No family photo
However the US official indicated Washington did not want to embarrass Indonesia.
The hosts have addressed US concerns about Lavrov attending in part by inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the G20 summit later this year and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Friday’s meet.
“It’s very important to us that we focus on the G20 agenda,” the US official said.
The official declined to comment on the “choreography” in Bali between the American and Russian diplomats.
But there will be no family photo of the G20 ministers as is customary, an Indonesian government official told AFP.
Blinken arrived at the Mulia hotel on the palm-fringed island on Friday where he could be seen talking with South Africa’s foreign minister before entering the same room as Lavrov, who he last met in January.
Russia’s top diplomat was seated between the Saudi Arabian and Mexican foreign ministers as the meeting began.
Friday’s meeting is a prelude to the leaders’ summit on Bali in November that is meant to focus on the global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
But attention has instead shifted to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has rattled global markets, sent food prices skyrocketing and led to allegations of Russian war crimes.
Liz Truss leaves
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will prevent Russia using the meeting as a “propaganda forum” on the Ukraine war, his spokeswoman said yesterday.
Blinken’s efforts to have a powerful Western stance against Russia at the G20 were diluted after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative party at lunchtime yesterday.
It prompted British Foreign Minister Liz Truss to cut short her Bali trip and pull out of Friday’s meeting, where she was expected to join her American and European counterparts in criticising Moscow.
She flew out of Bali on Friday morning and was replaced by former British ambassador to the European Union Tim Barrow, a British official told AFP.
The talks between Blinken and Wang on Saturday — their first since October — will seek to address tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
A top US official for East Asia said the pair would discuss “guardrails” on competition but said Blinken would also explore areas of cooperation.
The meeting comes as US President Joe Biden voices hope for a conversation in the coming weeks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he last spoke in March.
Lavrov met Wang on Thursday to discuss Russia’s invasion, which Moscow says it launched to stop Ukraine from joining the NATO military alliance.
The United States has condemned Beijing’s support for Russia and Blinken is expected to reiterate those warnings in talks with Wang.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong will herself meet Wang on the sidelines of the meeting on Friday to press China to end trade “blockages”, she said.
“We all know we have our differences. There are challenges in the relationship. We believe engagement is necessary to stabilise the relationship,” Wong told reporters.
It will be Australia and China’s first foreign ministers’ meeting since 2019.
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They are already talking about using this technology to cure phobias like speaking in public and other more general forms of social anxiety. The possibilities with this technology are immense and positively exciting.
More likely people will use them to escape social situations as we veer further towards a fully virtual society.
Porn, it’s going to be used for porn. Same as the Internet.
FFS get a grip,that was pure shite!
Jasus The Journal has gone downhill if this is considered newsworthy
They’ve always peddled fluff alongside the more pressing issues. Room for them both
Every weekday at 11am we have Take a Break, it’s generally a lighter video like this. We have about 60+ articles a day, so there’s plenty to read that isn’t like this.
Great, now look what you’ve done Cosmo. Hope you’re happy.
Pass no heed aoife you’re doing a sterling job. Snapchat hun?
Yes but not every video with an “Irish Mammy” is funny
I like the Journals work @Aoife. Never mind the bugrudgers! I think it’s a great video. .. shows how accessible it is. The Irish mammy dropping f-bombs is classic!!
Nothing to do with begrudging, it’s just my opinion and many others that it is cringeworthy and not remotely funny. Journal can do much better than this
Yawn
Was expecting more ‘
FFS Filming in portrait !
You’d think they’d make the cameras not record video in portrait by this stage…
Or you would think people would know to record with their phone sideways by now.
Was only a matter of time before these videos arrived.
I wonder what she was watching
It’s the jurassic Park clip. A sleeping bronctosauaus wakes up and comes over to you. It’s really cool
Why is the footage warping at sections around the womans body?
Illuminati and or NWO, with a possibility of lizard people shapeshifting
That’s nearly two minutes of my life wasted. On the plus side, at least she didn’t pepper the entire video with multiple effing and blinding which, unfortunately, one has come to expect from such Irish-made videos. But for gawd’s sake, why can’t the makers of them use landscape mode?
That looked like me coming home from the pub last night.
Have a look at that wine rack in the background, packed!! Bit early in the day to be drinking!
Are those the 30€ dunnes headsets?
Gear VR
That kitchen looks a bit dated!
Billy big balls cause he has an island in his
I think this is an advert…
This pornos great…
Actual scene, -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEKjamS9cTs
Can’t wait to play knockout kings on this so I can finally win a fight.
have your say