G20 foreign ministers' meeting to kick off in Delhi today; all details here

G20 foreign ministers' meeting: Apart from the main event, Delhi will also host a meeting of foreign ministers of the QUAD nations

Over the next two days, Delhi will host the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting. It will be attended by the foreign ministers of almost all the G20 countries. Very few, including Japan, will give it a miss. According to the external affairs ministry, the foreign ministers of Brazil (Mauro Vieira), Mauritius (Alan Ganoo), Turkiye (Mevlut Cavusoglu), Australia (Penny Wong), and the International Labour Organisation Sherpa Richard Marc Samans have already arrived in New Delhi for the meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also arrived in India on Tuesday. Lavrov will also attend Raisina Dialogue 2023. Besides Lavrov, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DSA) Under Secretary General Li Junhua has also arrived.

Earlier, China confirmed that its Foreign Minister Qin Gang would attend the meeting on March 2. However, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi would skip the summit due to "domestic parliamentary engagements". South Korea will also send a junior minister to the meeting.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are among those likely to arrive after the dinner on March 1.

Apart from the main event, New Delhi will also host a meeting of foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or QUAD nations. These are India, the United States, Australia and Japan. However, the likely absence of Hayashi now cast a shadow on this meet.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar is also expected to meet several foreign ministers for bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event.

What is on the agenda?

On March 1, a state dinner will be held at 7 pm at Taj Palace on Sardar Patel Marg. Later, on March 2, two sessions will be held on "Strengthening Multilateralism and Need for Reforms, Food and Energy Security, Development Cooperation" and "Counter-Terrorism: New and Emerging Threats".

Josep Borrell, foreign affairs chief of the European Union (EU), earlier said that he would present a "strong picture" to Russia on its "blatant violation of international law and UN charter".

However, Lavrov is expected to make a statement on the causes and "masterminds" of geopolitical problems. Also, the Russian news agency TASS on Tuesday reported that Moscow would present an "unbiased picture" of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. Lavrov has accused the US of being involved in the blasts.

According to a report by The Hindu, officials and diplomats think that a joint statement will be difficult to arrive at due to divisions between the G7 grouping and the Russia-China combine.

Special arrangements in place

Wednesday's dinner is going to take place at the Taj Palace. According to a report by News18, the menu will have a special focus on millet foods as India is celebrating the International Year of Millets. Rajesh Wadhwa, the executive chef, has asked his team to make "food less spicy and focus more on flavours".