Western foreign ministers from the G20 group of nations meeting in Brazil on Wednesday attacked Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov listened, diplomats said.
"Russia must be made to pay for its aggression," British Foreign Minister David Cameron told the closed session, according to his office.
The top diplomats from the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and Norway made similar remarks on the first day of a two-day meeting.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters that Lavrov calmly replied to Cameron's remarks with "a set of alternative facts" about events in Ukraine.
Lavrov did not speak to reporters. Russia's justification of its "special military operation" in Ukraine, which began two years ago, initially was to "de-Nazify" Ukraine. More recently, Moscow has emphasized that it needs to defend against Western aggression.
The meeting was set to prepare the agenda for a G20 summit in November. At a summit in September, G20 leaders adopted a declaration that avoided condemning Russia for the war in Ukraine but called on all states not to use force to grab territory.
Cameron also noted the death of dissident Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison last week.
Eide said the G20 session in Rio focused mainly on conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
"We have to support Ukraine until it emerges as a free and independent sovereign country without another army on its soil," the Norwegian minister said he told the meeting.
Eide said the ministers who spoke at the meeting agreed with the need for a two-state solution in the Middle East but there was no consensus on how to achieve it.
Brazil, this year's president of the G20, opened the foreign ministers' meeting by blaming the United Nations and other multinational bodies for failing to stop conflicts that are killing innocent people.
Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira called for "profound reform" of global governance as Brazil's top priority this year.
"Multilateral institutions are not adequately equipped to deal with current challenges, as demonstrated by the Security Council's unacceptable paralysis in relation to ongoing conflicts," Vieira said at the meeting.
"This state of inaction results in the loss of innocent lives," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on his way to the Rio meeting and expressed U.S. support for Brazil's agenda to make global governance more effective.
The top U.S. diplomat discussed Israel's war in Gaza with Lula amid a diplomatic spat after the Brazilian leader likened Israel's war to the Nazi genocide during World War Two, a U.S. spokesperson told reporters.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.