Foreign ministers from the Group of Twenty countries cancelled the traditional group photo at a meeting in Atlanta.
This came after representatives of European states voiced strong objections to Russia taking part in the photo session, Reuters reported.
A US State Department spokesperson said the department removed the official photo session from the agenda to prevent it from becoming a distraction or a spectacle. According to Western diplomats, around a third of summit participants, including Australia and Canada, made it clear they did not want to be photographed alongside Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said a group photo with Lavrov involving European partners was out of the question, as there was no talk of any normalisation of relations with Russia. Earlier, European officials had suggested taking two separate pictures — one with Lavrov and one without him.