Antony Blinken says Russia can end war tomorrow if it wants, urges return to START treaty negotiations

He commended External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for coming out with a Chairs Summary at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, a first of its kind.

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken (top left) walks past Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (lower) during the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in New Delhi on March 2, 2023. | Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken, while addressing a press conference in Delhi on Thursday, said that Russia could end the Ukraine war tomorrow if it wanted. He said that only Russia and China refused to sign on to the Bali document and that at the UNGA, no G20 country voted with Russia.

Mr. Blinken said, “Every country is suffering from the impacts of the Russian War in Ukraine. We have to get food to those who are hungry and help countries become agriculturally sufficient. We also discussed at the G20 FMM that Russia must extend the Black Sea grain initiative.”

He commended External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar for coming out with a Chairs Summary at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, a first of its kind.

“Tomorrow we will hold a Quad FM meeting”, the U.S. diplomat said.

On his brief meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Mr. Blinken said that he urged the Russian Minister to return to negotiations for the START treaty, end the war and return to the path of peace. “I spoke briefly with Lavrov today. I urged Him to return to negotiate the Start treaty. I raised the wrongful detention of American prisoner in Russia,” he said.

When asked about the democratic backslide in india, Mr. Blinken answered that India and U.S. are two democracies and they have to hold themselves accountable to the core values of democracy. “We regularly engage with our Indian counterparts on the issue, as I did with Jaishankar today,” the U.S. Secretary of state said. Talking about the restrictions been placed on NGOs in India, he said, “When it comes to restrictions on NGOs, we raise with our Indian counterparts the necessity of allowing all NGOs to do their work without restrictions, and this comes up in our conversations regularly.”

Issuing a stern warning to China, Mr. Blinken said that if China were to assist Russia militarily or subvert sanctions imposed on Russia, it would be a serious problem and ‘there would be consequences’.

Replying to a question from The Hindu on the future of G20, he said that as long as there’s a consensus that includes all the members of the G20 minus two, the process can still go ahead, even if there is no joint communique at the leaders’ summit in September.