G20 foreign ministers began a meeting this morning in Bali with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Sergey Lavrov, who have not met since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Discussions will focus on the Russian-Ukrainian war and its global implications for the economy and geopolitics, but finding a consensus between the two societies will be difficult, and discussions between Westerners and Moscow are expected to be tense.

Retno Marsudi, foreign minister of this year’s G20 host country Indonesia, called for an end to the war in Ukraine in Lavrov’s presence.
“Our duty is to end the war as quickly as possible and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” the minister said at the opening of the group’s foreign ministers’ meeting.

The last meeting between Blinken and Lavrov was in February in Geneva, when the US Secretary of State warned Russia of the huge consequences if it invaded Ukraine, which it did on February 24.
The meeting sets the stage for a summit of presidents and leaders in November, and Blinken will take the opportunity to pressure allies such as India, who hold different positions on Ukraine, to distance themselves from Moscow.