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India's long-standing security ties with Russia have placed them in a delicate diplomatic position. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was expected to dominate Thursday's meeting of the world's top diplomats in New Delhi, with host India struggling to avoid the discord that ended its latest G20 meeting. The rally will see US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the same room for the first time since July, but the two men are unlikely to have talks.
Western delegates fear China is considering supplying its Russian ally with weapons and will use the foreign ministers' summit to discourage Beijing from intervening in the conflict.
India's longstanding security ties with Russia put the host of Thursday's meeting in an awkward diplomatic position after refusing to condemn the invasion over the past year.
But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was confident India would use the meeting to "send a message to Russia that this war has to end."
"For sure the success of today's meeting will be measured by what we can do about it," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Borrell will meet on the sidelines of the New Delhi summit with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, where he will seek assurances that Beijing will not support Russia's war effort.
"So far the answer has been clearly given by China, 'it hasn't happened and it won't happen', but we must remain vigilant," said a senior EU official with knowledge of the matter.
China's state news agency Xinhua last week quoted senior diplomat Wang Yi as saying Beijing was ready to "strengthen strategic coordination" with Russia after meeting Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
"Zero Evidence"
Blinken said he had no plans to meet the Russian or Chinese foreign ministers at the G20 summit.
The last time Blinken and Lavrov were in the same room, at a G20 meeting in Bali last July, the latter stormed in, according to Western officials.
“If Russia, President Putin, were genuinely prepared to engage in the meaningful diplomacy necessary to end the aggression, we would, of course, be the first to work to engage, but there is no evidence of that,” Blinken said.
Blinken had a heated encounter with Wang last month in Germany after the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over its east coast on February 4.
Lavrov intends to use his presence at the G20 to punish Western countries for the conflict, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Western nations want "revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from their hands," the ministry said on Tuesday.
"The destructive policies of the United States and its allies have already brought the world to the brink of disaster," he added.
India wanted its G20 presidency this year to focus on issues like poverty reduction and climate finance, but the war in Ukraine has so far pushed other issues off the agenda.
A meeting of G20 finance ministers in Bangalore last week failed to agree on a joint statement after Russia and China tried to water down language on the war.
Hosting the G20 puts India in a difficult position because, while it shares Western concerns about China, it is also a major buyer of Russian arms and has increased its imports of Russian oil.
India has not condemned the invasion of Ukraine, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling Putin last year that now was "not the time for war" in comments seen as a rebuke in Moscow.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia was trying with its "cynical games... to sow discord in the international community."
“Last week, one year after the start of the Russian offensive, a large majority of nations in the United Nations General Assembly called this brutal war for what it is,” he said in a statement.
