Lavrov Protests Poland’s G20 Role as US Backs Full Membership

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that inviting Poland to attend G20 meetings was counterproductive and broke with the diplomatic practice of seeking consensus at such gatherings, according to Russian news agencies. “Of course, this violates the principles of diplomacy, and especially multilateral diplomacy, when members of associations such as the G20 work on the basis of consensus,” Lavrov was quoted as saying on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Atlanta. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Lavrov said Poland “contributes nothing” to the meeting. He argued that its economy was not big enough to qualify and that NATO and the EU were already well represented in the group. He added that no one had pressed Russia to accept Poland’s presence. “The Americans simply invited the Polish minister, and he came in and sat down in the chair set aside for him,” he said. The US, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 this year, invited Poland to take part as a full participant. It has also proposed that Poland become a full member, much like Germany or France, which are also represented through the EU. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at a reception for the ministers at Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium, said Poland deserved to be made a full member. “[US] President [Donald] Trump believes their economic success and growing global influence is exactly what the G20 needs to tackle the major economic challenges we all face,” Rubio said. Other Topics of Interest Poland in Constitutional Standoff as Court Heads Suspended Karol Nawrocki aborted a flight to Senegal as orders suspending Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal heads sparked police deployment and clashes. Economic miracle Poland’s economy passed $1 trillion for the first time last year, making it the world’s 21st largest, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF expects it to grow 3.3% this year, well above the European average. Poland’s economy is already larger than those of G20 members such as Argentina and South Africa. Western officials say it could take years for Poland to be accepted as a full member given Russia’s opposition and the G20’s requirement for consensual decisions. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he welcomed the push and had discussed it with a number of G20 member countries in bilateral meetings in Atlanta. He said Britain, which will head the G20 next year, had already invited Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to attend the 2027 leaders’ summit in Manchester, England, and that Poland was working to secure invitations from the following presidencies, South Korea and Mexico. He said he did not expect “enthusiasm from Russia”. Sikorski also called for a rapid ceasefire in the Black Sea that would allow safe passage for grain shipments from both Ukraine and Russia. He said Moscow must end its war against Ukraine before being allowed to resume energy sales to Europe, formerly its most lucrative market. “I spoke in favor of doing something quickly because the people of the Global South need this grain,” Sikorski told reporters. He said Ukraine must be included in any effort to end Russia’s invasion, now in its fifth year. Europe also had “cards” in the issue and should be involved, he said. Lavrov said Russia’s position on the war was unchanged and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comments on maintaining strikes on Russian targets were unhelpful in preparing for new talks. “Our position is known, but what Ukraine intends to bring to the negotiating table, I don’t know,” Lavrov said. He said Zelensky’s frequent comments that Ukraine was acquiring more weapons to strike Russian targets made preparation for new talks difficult. “This kind of attitude doesn’t really help much in preparing for negotiations,” Lavrov said. Both Russia and Ukraine have said they are willing to hold further three-sided talks with the US for the first time since early in the year. Zelensky said this week that he hoped a trilateral meeting would take place in Abu Dhabi between November 6 and 10, and that Kyiv wanted Europe to be involved. On relations with Washington, Lavrov said: “Fundamental issues are not being resolved. Sanctions remain, all the sanctions from [former US President Joe] Biden are echoed by the current administration.” He pointed to a State Department announcement on Friday that it had approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine. Foreign ministers at the G20 skipped the traditional group photo in Atlanta, with some making it clear they objected to appearing with Lavrov. See the original here. TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find our guest interviews, world news from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region.