Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who heads the Russian delegation at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, and French President Emmanuel Macron shook hands before taking photos of the participants of the meeting.
The handshake footage was published by Bloomberg.
They show how Macron, who was standing on the second step of the podium, approached the Russian Foreign Minister and extended his hand to him. Lavrov, who was on the top tier, responded to the gesture of the French president and shook hands with him. As the agency noted, the moment of a brief handshake became "one of the most impressive" during the joint photographing of the leaders, TASS reports.
Earlier it became known that US President Joe Biden was absent from the photo of the G20 leaders, however, as stated in the White House, this was not due to Biden's unwillingness to be photographed with Lavrov, but because of logistical problems.
The G20 Summit with the participation of the leaders of the G20 countries and the states invited by Brazil is being held in Rio de Janeiro from November 18 to 19.
EADaily adds that Politico reported that on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro "Macron said that the United States had made a "good decision" to lift restrictions on the use of missiles by Kiev."
"France declares that Moscow, and not Washington, raises the stakes. President Joe Biden made a "good decision" by allowing Ukraine to use US—made weapons for strikes on Russian territory," Macron said.
As stated in the Politico article, "Biden's new move was a response to Russia's escalation of the conflict with Ukraine, allegedly using soldiers from North Korea along with its forces."
"Russia is the only power that has decided to escalate. In fact, it was this violation that led to the US decision," the French president said.