G20 'Family Photo' Scrapped After Diplomats Refuse to Stand with Russia's Lavrov
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The traditional group photo at the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Atlanta was cancelled after more than a third of attending officials threatened to walk out rather than be photographed alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Atlanta opened Friday without its customary "family photo" after more than a third of participating officials threatened to leave rather than be photographed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who had briefly considered holding two separate photos, one with Lavrov and one without — ultimately cancelled the tradition altogether. A US official said Rubio acted because the controversy was threatening to overshadow the substantive agenda. "Rather than allow a ceremonial photo opportunity to become a diplomatic distraction, the United States decided to forgo the photo," an official said. Lavrov dismissed the episode at a press conference Friday, saying, "If what matters most to them is how they look in the family photo and who is standing next to them, well, that says it all." He also said he and Rubio had briefly met and shared "a fairly good conversation." The photo dispute reflected broader tensions at the meeting. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband addressed Lavrov directly, saying Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine and citing a drone strike on the Dnipro railway the previous day that killed 15 people. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul sought to downplay US-European divisions, calling Rubio "a reliable partner" and saying both sides were "reading from the same paper." The meeting is expected to conclude with a statement from the chair rather than a joint communiqué, with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski noting it is "very difficult to agree a common line" when parties to ongoing wars are seated at the same table.
