At the G20 meeting in New Delhi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had his first face-to-face exchange with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov since the war began in Ukraine. During their brief meeting, the Secretary of State demanded an end to the war in Ukraine and urged Russia to reverse its suspension of cooperation in the New START nuclear arms treaty, as well as accepting a US proposal for the release of US citizen Paul Whelan.

The war in Ukraine and the varying strategies proposed to resolve it have taken a toll on the G20 gathering and left the group unable to reach a consensus on a communique. While the West has insisting on helping Ukraine to regain territories taken by Russia, Moscow and Beijing have urged outside countries to refrain from escalating the conflict.

This meeting, which only lasted less than ten minutes, was the first contact between highest ranking members of the US