Blinken To Push Ambivalent G20 For Greater Ukraine Support

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will continue to push for greater support for Ukraine when he heads to the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi, India tomorrow.

• The foreign minister's meeting is the second since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the first since an acrimonious meeting in Bali, Indonesia in July which saw heated confrontations between Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Western diplomats.
• This week's G20 finance and central bank ministerial in Bengaluru, India saw the group fail to adopt a joint closing statement with president India issuing a chairman's summary saying "most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine," but adding there were "different assessments of the situation."
• The US State Department said in a preview of Blinken's agenda: "Russia’s brutal affront to the international rules-based order... cannot stand"
• "We must hold those responsible to account; there can be no return to business as usual with the Kremlin while it wages its unconscionable war."
• There is little optimism for diplomacy with key members China, South Africa, and India unlikely to support language condemning Russia, and Blinken revealing he has "no plans" to meet with his Chinese or Russian counterparts.