Lavrov to lead Russian delegation at G20 summit – Moscow
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will head his country’s delegation at the G20 summit in the Indian capital New Delhi next month, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.
“Lavrov will head the delegation, as tasked by Russian President [Vladimir Putin],” Zakharova told reporters.
The meeting of the group of leading world economies is scheduled for September 9-10, and will be the latest event at which Russia is represented by its foreign minister. Moscow announced earlier in August that Lavrov would also head his country’s delegation at the United Nations General Assembly ‘high-level week’ next month.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed last week that President Putin had no plans to attend the upcoming G20 summit in person. The exact format of the Russian leader’s participation in the event was still being ironed out, Peskov added on Friday.
Putin also skipped the previous G20 summit, which was hosted by Indonesia last November. The event was characterized by US-led efforts to condemn and “isolate” Russia over the conflict with Ukraine.
At the time, Western media reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden had drawn up a special contingency plan to prevent him from ending up in the same room as Putin, should the Russian president attend the event in person.
