With Russia at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Both Group Photo and Joint Statement Fail to Materialize

The Group of Twenty (G20) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held over two days in the U.S. city of Atlanta, ended without adopting a joint statement. With participating countries unable to reach agreement on any major issue that would warrant a joint statement, the U.S. State Department settled for summarizing the discussions in a chair’s statement released after the meeting closed.
According to major international media outlets on the 31st of last month (local time), a joint statement failed to materialize as disagreements between Russia and the other participating countries over the war in Ukraine came particularly sharply to the fore. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told the Associated Press that “it was expected that no agreement would be reached,” adding, “Wars are underway, and the parties to those wars are sitting together at the negotiating table, so it was very difficult to agree on a common position.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for unity when he opened the meeting the previous day, but ultimately canceled the customary group photo of foreign ministers. European diplomats opposed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov taking part in the photo, saying they would either not take part in the photo or leave during the shoot. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters, “Under no circumstances will there be a group photo with Minister Lavrov alongside our European partners,” adding, “because relations with Russia are not normal.”
Nevertheless, Rubio defended the U.S. president’s decision that day, saying, “President Donald Trump thought it was important for Russia to take part in G20 discussions.” He said, “I don’t think simply meeting someone grants that person legitimacy or means you agree with everything they do,” adding, “Everyone wants an agreement to end the war. How can you reach an agreement without meeting the other side?”
According to attendees, the disagreements were so wide-ranging that plans to issue a chair’s statement instead of a joint statement had in fact been in place for a long time. The issues on which the countries disagreed reportedly included the war in Ukraine, the war in Iran, U.S. tariffs and China’s actions in the South China Sea. Attendees said, “Russia in particular took a hard-line position on Ukraine and was likewise opposed to Poland joining the G20.” They added, “The U.S. government’s decision not to invite South Africa, a G20 member, to this meeting despite opposition from other countries also provoked a backlash.”
Although some partner countries within the G20 whose positions were similar to those of the United States issued a joint statement on AI, disagreements over terminology also surfaced within the statement itself. In the joint statement released by Rubio after his meeting with foreign ministers from the Asia-Pacific region, each passage concerning “superintelligence (SI)” was marked with an asterisk (*), which linked to a footnote explaining that “in Australia, India and Japan, this refers to artificial intelligence (AI).” In this connection, President Trump said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September this year, “We have decided to use the term SI instead of AI,” and previously directed that the term be used as a requirement.
[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter