Japanese Finance Minister Refrains From Walking Out on Russian Counterpart at G20

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Thursday that he chose not to leave the room at G20 ministerial in Washington during speech of Russia's Anton Siluanov in order to have the opportunity to condemn the Russian operation in Ukraine.

Among those who boycotted Russia at G20 on Wednesday were the delegates of Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

"I severely condemned Russia's invasion as the principal cause of many issues that the global economy is facing and stated that Russia should not be at the G-20 meeting", Suzuki told a press conference, as quoted by the Kyodo news agency.

Lagarde and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland posted photos of officials who left the G20 room before the Russian minister's address on social media. Siluanov spoke via videolink.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who chaired the meeting as part of Indonesia's G20 presidency, said on Wednesday that the walkout did not disrupt the ministerial and member states remain committed to multilateral discussion of common challenges.