The West and Russia will face off at a meeting of foreign ministers from G20 countries in Brazil on Wednesday and Thursday, amid a diplomatic crisis between that Latin American country and Israel over the Gaza war.
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Two years after the start of the war in Ukraine, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken has to meet the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov at this forum in Rio de Janeiro.
But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will not be present at this first major meeting of the G20 year.
Brazil has chaired this group since December, and its summit of heads of state will also take place in Rio in November.
For Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the G20 is “the forum most likely to positively influence the international agenda.”
But his ambitions to mediate global crises appeared to be in jeopardy on Sunday when he caused a diplomatic storm by comparing Israel's offensive in Gaza to the Holocaust. These comments led to him being declared “persona non grata” in Israel.
Arriving in Brazil on Tuesday evening, the head of American diplomacy met with Lula on Wednesday morning at the presidential palace in Brasilia. They did not provide any information to the press.
The United States is supporting Israel diplomatically and militarily, vetoing on Tuesday a new draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. They reject allegations of “genocide” against Israel.
“If at the G20 summit Lula thought about proposing peace resolutions, not only for the Middle East but also for Ukraine, then in my opinion it is no longer relevant,” said Igor Lucena, a Brazilian international relations specialist.
The outlook for the conflict in Ukraine, over which the G20 members also disagree, is also bleak.
Despite pressure from Western countries to condemn the Russian invasion, the group's last summit in New Delhi in September produced a vague final communiqué.
The text denounced the use of force but made no mention of Vladimir Putin's Russia, which has close ties with G20 members such as India and Brazil.
For his part, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wants to use his presence at the G20 summit to “directly” denounce “Russian aggression” in Ukraine to his Russian counterpart, according to a press release from his ministry.
On Saturday, members of the G7, which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada, all allies of Ukraine, are expected to discuss tougher sanctions against Moscow in a virtual meeting.
“Extinguish fire”
The opening session of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, which will be held at the Marina da Gloria site, a marina with stunning views of Rio Bay, is expected to focus on “international tensions” on Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday morning's debates are expected to focus on “global governance reform,” an issue close to Brazil's heart and which wants to give more weight to the countries of the South in institutions such as the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank.
“We have returned to Cold War levels in terms of the number of conflicts and their severity, which gives this issue a whole new urgency,” Mauricio Lyrio, a Brazilian diplomat who helped organize the G20 conference, said on Tuesday .
“We are currently content with putting out fires (…). “We must adapt the international system to make it possible to prevent new conflicts,” he added.
The other two priorities of Brazil's G20 presidency are the fight against hunger and global warming.
Bilateral meetings are also planned on the sidelines of the meeting in Rio, but a meeting between MM Blinken and Lavrov appears unlikely given the tensions that followed the announcement of the prison death of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny on Friday.
Her last interview took place in March 2023 during a G20 meeting in India.
Founded in 1999, the G20 brings together most of the world's major economies as well as the European Union and the African Union.
Originally his main activity was professional, but he increasingly became concerned with the pressing issues in world news.