China’s head of state and party will be represented by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while only Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Afghanistan Representative Samir Kabulov will join in for Russia.
As the incumbent G20 President, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had actually invited the heads of state and government to discuss the future of the country in the Hindu Kush with the militant Islamist Taliban two months after the fall of Afghanistan.
A central aspect of the deliberations is how other countries deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. China and Russia play an important role as they offered their support to the Islamists at an early stage and show little fear of contact.
Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov could not attend the G20 meeting because of various other dates, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the Interfax agency. The Italian side had been informed about this in advance.