RUSSIAN foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has been taken to the hospital after suffering a health problem following his arrival for the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesian authorities said.
Four Indonesian government and medical officials said Lavrov was receiving treatment at the Sanglah Hospital in the provincial capital, Denpasar.
Two of the people said Lavrov had been treated for a heart condition.
The hospital did not immediately comment.
But Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova later denied that Lavrov had been hospitalised and did not address whether he had received treatment.
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She posted a video of Lavrov, looking healthy in a T-shirt and shorts, in which he was asked to comment on the report of his treatment.
“They’ve been writing about our president for 10 years that he’s fallen ill. It’s a game that is not new in politics,” Lavrov says in the video.
Russia’s state news agency Tass cited Lavrov as saying, “I’m in the hotel, reading materials for the summit tomorrow.”
Lavrov is the highest-ranking Russian official at the gathering, which US President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping and other leaders are attending.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance at the G20 had been uncertain until last week, when officials confirmed he would not come and that Russia would be represented by Lavrov instead.
Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is expected to be among the issues discussed at the two-day G20 meeting, which brings together officials from countries representing more than 80% of the world’s economic output.
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