Lavrov To Head Russian G20 Delegation In South Africa, Moscow Says G8 Has Become Irrelevant

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will head the national delegation to the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers in South Africa next week, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who said “The first meeting of the G20 foreign ministers to be hosted by our friends and like-minded associates from South Africa in their presidency debut is being prepared. It will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on February 20-21 this year. Our Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is planning to head the Russian delegation. Current issues of the integrity and effective functioning of the global economic system will be addressed.”

G20 members include the world’s major economies, representing 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population. Members include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and the African Union. Six of the group are full BRICS members, with another two full members and three BRICS partners within the African Union, plus several potential members also participating. Next week’s G20 summit therefore contains a significant pro-BRICS majority.

The event is the first of this year’s calendar, with Brazil holding the Chairmanship. The Heads of State summit will take place later in the year in Rio De Janeiro.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has suggested that Russia rejoins the G8, from which it has been suspended since 2014. The current G7 is an intergovernmental political and economic forum including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; with the European Union as a non-enumerated member. G7 members are major IMF advanced economies. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, (February 14) in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to readmit Russia, that the G7 has “lost its relevance” and is “obsolete because economic growth centres have shifted to other parts of the world and are not represented in the current configuration.”