Russian delegation to join G20 energy meeting: diplomat

Russia will send officials to a G20 energy meeting in Houston next week, a Russian diplomat said on Saturday, as the United States ups efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.

It comes after the United States welcomed Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to North Carolina for another G20 meeting in early September, causing discomfort among Ukraine's European allies.

"A Russian delegation will participate in the meeting of energy ministers held under the US presidency of the G20 in Houston from September 14 to 16," Marat Berdyev, the ambassador responsible for overseeing G20-related issues, said on Telegram.

Representatives from Russia's energy, foreign and natural resources ministries would be involved in the delegation, Berdyev added, without specifying who those representatives would be.

"Russian ideas are becoming increasingly sought after regarding flexible energy mixes, technological neutrality, the role of fossil fuels in general and of natural gas and peaceful nuclear energy in particular," he said.

The announcement follows the "discomfort", as Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne put it in an interview with AFP, Siluanov's presence at the Asheville meeting of finance ministers caused Ukraine's Western allies.

"We do not think now is the time to normalise Russia" or its presence at such talks, EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis said.

Washington has recently upped efforts to break a diplomatic stalemate in Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, which began when Russia launched its full-scale Ukraine offensive in 2022.

Days after the Asheville meeting, US President Donald Trump sent his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv for talks on ending the fighting.

Trump had pushed for Moscow and Kyiv to strike a deal to halt fighting, but his initial 28-point plan was criticised by Kyiv and Europe as caving in to the Kremlin's demands.

The Group of 20 major economies comprises 19 nations plus the EU and the African Union. The body was established in the wake of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis to boost global economic and financial stability.