After meeting with his colleagues from India, Japan, and Australia in New Delhi on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia could not pursue war with impunity.
After the conference, the Quad group stated that the use or threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine was “inadmissible.”
Putin canceled a historic nuclear weapons control deal and threatened to begin nuclear testing late last month.
“If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too,” Blinken told a forum in India which was also attended by the Quad ministers.
Blinken met with counterparts from the Quad group on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in New Delhi, where ministers had traded blame over the conflict.
A day earlier in New Delhi, Blinken met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since the conflict in Ukraine began just over a year ago. During the brief encounter, Blinken urged Moscow to end the war and reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty, a senior U.S. official said.
According to the Russian foreign ministry, Russian news outlets claimed that Lavrov and Blinken met for less than 10 minutes without negotiating.
The U.S. and its allies urged G20 members to maintain urging Russia to stop the crisis. Still, Moscow, which deems its activities a “special military operation,” and China blocked a united statement.
Josep Borrell, EU Foreign Policy Head, advocated global cooperation on Friday. “Everyone who is abstaining in multiple different locations has to recognize that we are confronting something that violates the prospect of a world agreement,” he added.
The Quad ministers also criticized China for “militarizing” disputed territory in the South China Sea and raising tensions.
China calls the Quad a Cold War clique “targeting other countries.” Instead, Quadrilateral Security Dialogue addresses Indo-Pacific strategic challenges.
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