US cancels G20 'family photo' in Atlanta after Europeans, UK and Australia refuse to pose with Lavrov
The traditional group photo opening the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta was cancelled on Friday after about a third of the delegations, including EU countries, the UK and Australia, said they would not appear next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the host, called off the photo but opened the talks with an appeal for unity.
"We are in a critical moment. We are facing a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises," Rubio told the ministers. Before the session Germany's foreign minister Johann Wadephul had warned that there would "in no case" be a family photo of European partners together with Lavrov, because there is no normality with Russia. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Britain had not engaged with the Russians in that way for years, and in the meeting told Lavrov directly: "We all know who the aggressor in this war is."
Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine in front of Lavrov as brutal and unjustified, saying it had hit international markets and worsened global food security; her spokesperson said Canberra supported the decision to drop the photo. Lavrov, for his part, complained that Poland's invitation to the meeting broke diplomatic rules, Reuters reported. The row comes as the Trump administration presses Kyiv and Moscow towards a deal, and on the same day Washington approved a $2.1 billion sale of Patriot missiles to Ukraine.