G20 fails to agree on joint statement over Ukraine as Blinken meets Lavrov

It was the first meeting between the top US and Russian diplomats since Putin’s invasion

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state Antony Blinken (AP)

A meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Delhi ended without agreement over the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday, as US secretary of state Antony Blinken briefly met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in their first encounter since the war.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there would be no statement agreed by all nations “because there were differences on the Ukraine issue which we could not reconcile”.

Blinken blamed Russia for derailing the meeting and urged the G20 to call on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.