Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Wadephul was asked whether he would take part in a group photograph with Lavrov, Anadolu Agency reported.
“I assume there will be no family photograph at all,” he said, adding that European partners would not appear in a photograph alongside the Russian foreign minister.
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“There is no normality with Russia,” Wadephul said.
The meeting opened without the traditional group photograph, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched the first plenary session with a call for international cooperation to address growing economic and geopolitical challenges.
Rubio described the current period as a “moment of choosing,” warning that the challenges facing the United States also had implications for the wider world.
“We are facing a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises, many of which pose severe threats to essential foundations of the global economic order,” he said.
The Group of Twenty (G20) is an international forum that brings together major advanced and emerging economies to coordinate global economic policies and discuss key international challenges.
Established in 1999 following the Asian financial crisis, the G20 comprises 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union, which joined the group in 2023.
