G20 foreign ministers cancel traditional family photo after objections to appearing with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov

G20 foreign ministers scrapped their traditional group photograph in Atlanta on Friday after several European and other Western representatives objected to appearing alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

A U.S. official said the State Department removed the photograph from the official agenda because Washington did not want the dispute to become a “spectacle” or distract from the meeting.

A Western diplomat told Reuters that roughly one-third of the participants opposed being photographed with Lavrov, including representatives from Australia and Canada.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was among the most explicit critics.

“There will be no family photo featuring our European partners together with Mr. Lavrov,” Wadephul said. “There is no normality with Russia. We must not send false visual signals.”

European officials had earlier discussed the possibility of taking two separate photographs — one with Lavrov and one without him — before the photo opportunity was dropped altogether.

Lavrov himself acknowledged that there had been concerns about the photograph.

His attendance at the G20 meeting, at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has highlighted continuing divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The dispute extended beyond symbolism. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband directly criticized Russia during the meeting over civilian deaths in Ukraine, while Lavrov defended Moscow’s position and said Russia would not accept Ukraine becoming what he described as a military threat to Russian security.