Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will represent Russia at the G-20 Summit in India and will address two plenary sessions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"On the instructions of the Russian President [Vladimir Putin], Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will head our delegation at the leaders' summit. He is scheduled to speak at two plenary sessions — One Planet on September 9 and One Future on September 10. Both speeches will focus on the key tasks of democratization and strengthening the role of the world majority in global economic institutions, as well as on the implementation of digital transformation," Zakharova told a briefing.
The minister is expected to hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, she added.
"We emphasize the unifying nature of India's G20 presidency, its determination to promote the interests of developing countries and create a constructive atmosphere at the forum. We also welcome the expected decision to include the African Union among the permanent members of the G20," the spokeswoman said.
She also said that the forum's productive potential has lately been "artificially limited" by Western countries trying to undermine the G-20 consensus principles by "extrapolating questionable G7 agreements to the forum's commitments."
On Sunday, Lavrov said that the G-20 was beginning to look like a combination of G7 Plus and BRICS Plus members. Russia will coordinate its position on global affairs with the new BRICS nations, including at other international forums, he added.