G20 foreign ministers end Atlanta meeting without consensus; Ma Zhaoxu sets out China's positions and opposes protectionism.
The two-day G20 foreign ministers' meeting ended in Atlanta, Georgia, on 31 October. According to CCTV News and China News Service, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio chaired discussions on geopolitical tensions, energy and supply chains, and no joint communiqué was issued because of differences. Rubio told a closing news conference that freedom of navigation in waterways such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea mattered, with shared recognition but much work still needed on widely acceptable solutions. China's foreign ministry said early on 1 November that Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu attended and, in a first-session speech, cited Xi's Global Security Initiative, urged cooling regional hotspots, addressing root causes of conflict and strengthening global security governance, supported energy security and transition cooperation, opposed politicising, militarising or instrumentalising key sea lanes, and said protectionism has no winners and trade issues should not be politicised, weaponised or over-securitised. Delegations differed sharply over Ukraine, the US-Iran conflict and US tariffs; the US cancelled the traditional group photo, with some European, Australian and Canadian delegates objecting to appearing with Russia's foreign minister, and the Trump administration's exclusion of South Africa, the previous G20 chair, also caused friction. SCMP said Rubio urged stronger supply chains and strategic trade routes, with universal recognition of critical minerals, supply chains and navigation, without naming China. Nikkei Asia, citing Reuters, said the US, Australia, India and Japan issued a Quad joint statement in Atlanta the same day expressing grave concern about "arbitrary export restrictions" and non-market practices causing overcapacity, without naming China; Rubio said the Quad was "not an anti-China coalition".
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