NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar will participate in the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Johannesburg on Feb 20-21, said govt on Wednesday. Jaishankar’s US counterpart Marco Rubio will skip the event, but China’s Wang Yi and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov will attend the meeting.
While Jaishankar is likely to informally meet Wang and Lavrov, a formal bilateral meeting is also not ruled out, according to govt sources, and will depend on the schedule of the leaders.
Jaishankar had last met Wang at the G20 Rio summit in Nov during which they discussed ways to take the relationship forward, following the border disengagement agreement, including through talks between the ‘special representatives’ and between the foreign secretary and vice minister. Both the engagements have taken place since then.
“EAM’s participation in the G20 FMM will strengthen India’s engagement with G20 countries and bolster the voice of the Global South in this important forum,” said the govt, adding that the minister will also have a few bilateral meetings on the margins of the event. South Africa holds the G20 presidency this year and will host the summit in Nov. Its presidency though has run into a controversy, with the US secretary of state Marco Rubio boycotting the foreign ministers’ meeting because South Africa is seeking to promote diversity, equality and inclusion. “In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism,” he had said earlier this month.
All other member-states, including India, China, Russia and EU, have backed South Africa’s presidency. India has used the G20 platform to highlight the need for global governance reform and, in solidarity with the Global South, repeatedly called for collective efforts to address food, fuel, and fertiliser shortages. “Multilateralism is under threat right now. We also need to use this opportunity to develop the international system further to be more inclusive for all countries in the world,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in South Africa.