New Delhi, 2 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The G20 meeting of foreign ministers in New Dehli on Thursday was marked by clear divides over the Ukraine war, with Russia and China on one side and the rest on the other.

Unlike at their last meeting in July 2022 however, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov left the room immediately after his speech, Lavrov stayed and listened to the ministers' demands.

His German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, who sat directly opposite him, called for an end to the war in Ukraine: "Mister Lavrov, stop this war! Stop violating our international order! Stop the bombing of Ukrainian cities and civilians."

"The path to peace is crystal-clear: If Russia withdraws its troops today, there will be no more war," Baerbock said.

She also told the long-time Russian diplomat that it was good he had attended the meeting to hear the comments in person.

Baerbock later pointedly told journalists in New Delhi: The Russian side has realized "that it is not a good strategy to come somewhere ... fire off your false narratives and then leave again."

Lavrov hit back when it was his turn to speak. According to the Russian state news agency TASS, he said that the West critiquing Russia was hypocritical, as they had been "pumping Ukraine full of weapons" for years.

Military operations by the United States had not aroused nearly as much indignation in the past, he said.

He called the Western economic sanctions against his country, such as an oil price cap, arbitrary.

"It is necessary to put a stop to illegal sanctions, any violation of international freedom of trade, market manipulation, arbitrary imposition of price caps and other attempts to appropriate foreign mineral resources," he said according to Russian news agencies.

Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lavrov spoke briefly in person at the G20 meeting in India, according to several reports.

"Blinken has asked for contact with Lavrov," Lavrov's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, according to Russia's state news agency TASS.

It was the first one-on-one meeting between Blinken and Lavrov since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago.

The brief conversation took place on the sidelines of the meeting, but there was no formal meeting or even negotiations, Zakharova said.

According to the New York Times, Blinken told his Russian counterpart that the United States would continue to support Ukraine and that Russia should resume the New START nuclear disarmament treaty recently suspended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Blinken also told Lavrov that Russia should release the imprisoned US citizen Paul Whelan.

Despite this flicker of diplomatic progress, the ministers did not agree on a joint final declaration at their meeting in India because of the dispute over the war.

Instead, the chair country India published its own summary of the deliberations on Thursday.

According to this, most states once again strongly condemned Russia's war on Ukraine and demanded an unconditional withdrawal from Ukrainian territory.

The foreign ministers of Russia and China, Lavrov and Qin Gang, did not agree to including the two paragraphs in question.

Due to "very polarized views of some countries," no joint final statement was reached, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told journalists at the end of the meeting. He stressed that India had made great efforts to reach a compromise.

Jaishankar went on to say that the ministers had been able to agree on many issues, such as on topics of multilateralism, food security, global health and climate change.

Last week's meeting of the G20 finance ministers also failed to produce a joint statement, with Russia and China taking contrasting positions to their colleagues.

Russia and China meanwhile reported a strengthening of ties at the New Delhi meeting.

Russia aims to comprehensively expand its cooperation with China, said Lavrov.

Lavrov referred to "far-reaching plans to develop our bilateral cooperation" during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

Both countries are a "stability factor in the system of international relations," Lavrov said, according to a report by Russia's Interfax news agency.

They met in person for the first time for talks that were held on the sidelines of the G20 ministers' meeting.

Moscow has been pursuing closer ties with Beijing ever since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago and is also seeking weapons supplies.

China has so far failed to condemn the Kremlin's invasion and the US has warned Beijing against supplying Russia with weapons. China had also produced a position paper on the war that was largely met with scepticism as it likewise failed to demand Russia withdraw from the territories of Ukraine occupied during the fighting.

The invasion dominated the ministers' talks on Thursday.

Baerbock noted that views differed on the war within the G20. "But what unites us all is that there is not a single place in the world where the Russian war has positive consequences."

She said that included Russia itself, as can be seen by the fact that thousands of people are leaving Russia.

She also expressed concern, along with Blinken, that Russia is suspending the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty. Baerbock called on Lavrov to resume dialogue with the United States and return to full implementation of the treaty.

Major challenges such as the Covid pandemic could only be overcome together, she said. Germany is calling on its G20 partners to do what the group was created to do, namely give the world hope that the challenges of our time can be solved.

The G20 comprises major industrialized and emerging economies, including Russia and China.