Baerbock speaks directly with Lavrov at the G20 summit

At the G20 summit on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Perbach demanded that Russia stop the war. He addressed his Russian counterpart directly – not without reason.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine nearly two years ago — and could end it again. The German Foreign Minister has made a request for the same Annalena Baerbach (Greens) at the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday (February 21). GreenIt is not without reason that the politician directly addressed his Russian partner, Sergey Lavrov: the 73-year-old has a habit of leaving the hall seemingly before Berbock's speeches.

Berbach's plea directly to Lavrov: “End this war”

This year, Peirbach addressed the Russian foreign minister directly at the G20 meeting. “If you care about human lives, if you care about your own people, Russian children and young people, you must end this war now,” the Green politician said to Lavrov, who sat three seats to his left. “If Russia ends this war now, the road to peace and justice will be open tomorrow,” added the German foreign minister.

Perbach and Lavrov shake hands at a joint press conference in Moscow in January 2022, shortly before the start of the war in Ukraine, press photos show. They are pictures taken in other times. A few days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and since then there has been an icy diplomatic truce between the Kremlin and Berlin. When the German Federal Foreign Minister began his speech at the G20 meeting in Indonesia in July 2022, Lavrov had already left the conference room. Diplomatic corruption had a long-lasting impact.

Lavrov has already left the hall several times: “not there to listen to others”

Diplomats had told AFP news agency about the incident in Indonesia, Russian Foreign Minister Berbakh left the “opposition” hall during the speech. However, it is not finally clear whether the minister actually went to the G20 meeting because of the Baerbach speech. “The fact that the Russian foreign minister spent most of the negotiations not here in the chamber, but outside the chamber, underlines that there is not a millimeter of willingness on the part of the Russian government to talk,” Perbach himself analyzed. incident

The behavior of the Russian Foreign Minister is not an isolated case: at the Ministerial Conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje at the end of November last year, Lavrov already left the conference room. When Baerbock delivered his speech. Then the foreign minister directly addressed the behavior of the Russian politician. As in other meetings, he is apparently in the room “only when he speaks, but not listening to others.” Even then, the Green politician called on Moscow to immediately end its war of aggression against Ukraine. (BME with material from DBA)