The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, denied Western media reports about mutual boycotts that took place during the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in Indonesia.
Zakharova stated that Western journalists “ran around the room and tried to figure out who was present in the meeting room, who left, and who spent time outside the meeting.”
She explained: “They somehow tried to impose a boycott, although there was no boycott from either side. There was no boycott on our side, because these are not our methods, and on the side of the West the boycott failed, and on the side of the regulators, everything was done to make the boycott take place. This meeting is held at the highest level, and really corresponds to everything that should have been discussed.”
And earlier, Western media reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov missed the speech of his German counterpart Annalina Beerbock and did not wait for the speech of the representative of Ukraine at the G-20 meeting. In addition, some media reported that the Russian minister left Indonesia ahead of schedule, and therefore will not participate in the official dinner and evening session of the event.
According to Zakharova, instead of resolving issues related to food, the economy and finance, the G7 countries “tried to turn the meeting into another manifestation of banditry and discord.”
And she continued: “Yeah, it didn’t work out. At first they came up with some kind of story about the fact that they do not want to be photographed. 13 out of 20 countries and 13 countries, they were not ready to stage any boycott, but would have acted constructively. Then they switched to other tactics, when the boycott practically failed and turned into the G7 boycott itself, and then in the end, forced the Western media to work over the boycott issue.
Source: Interfax