German foreign minister rules out joint G20 family photo with Russia's Lavrov

By Diyar Guldogan

ATLANTA, US (AA) - German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday that European representatives would not appear alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a joint family photograph at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in the US, stressing that relations with Moscow could not return to normal.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, Wadephul was asked whether he would participate in a group photograph with Lavrov.

“I assume there will be no family photograph at all,” he said, adding that European partners would not appear in a photograph alongside the Russian foreign minister.

“There is no normality with Russia,” Wadephul said.

The meeting opened without the traditional family photograph, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched the first plenary session with a call for international cooperation to address mounting economic and geopolitical challenges.

Rubio described the current period as a “moment of choosing,” saying the challenges facing the US also have implications for the rest of the world.

“We are facing a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises, many of which pose severe threats to essential foundations of the global economic order,” he said.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is an international forum bringing together the world's major advanced and emerging economies to discuss and coordinate global economic policies and address key international challenges.

Established in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, the G20 now comprises 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union, which joined in 2023.

Diyar Güldoğan