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# Rubio Ends G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting With Chair’s Statement, Not a Joint Statement: “Aligned on the Problem, Not on How to Solve It”
- URL: https://www.bexus.info/20261102-news-373-en/
- Published: 2026-11-09T01:21:56.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-09T01:21:56.000Z
- Description: Secretary of State Rubio closed the Atlanta G20 foreign ministers’ meeting on the 31st (local time) with a “Chair’s Statement,” not a joint one, covering energy security, supply chains and Hormuz tensions. “I cannot say we are aligned on how to solve it.” China sent a vice-ministerial official.
- Author: Alfred Kim
- Tags: english, 워싱턴

Atlanta

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio concluded the two-day G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 31st (local time) by issuing a “Chair’s Statement” in the name of the presidency rather than a joint statement of the members. The statement, released by the U.S. Department of State, framed energy security, supply chain resilience and geopolitical tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait as the core agenda of the meeting. At his closing press conference, Rubio said members shared a sense of how serious the problem is but “I cannot say we are aligned on how to solve it.” The United States, this year’s G20 chair, carried President Trump’s “G20 back to basics” approach into the foreign ministers’ meeting as well, ahead of the December leaders’ summit in Miami.

## Two days of talks end with a Chair’s Statement instead of a joint statement

The Chair’s Statement issued by the State Department opens with the sentence: “G20 Foreign Ministers met in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 30 and 31, in the year of America’s 250th anniversary of independence.” The department said in the statement that the U.S. presidency has been pursuing “taking the G20 back to basics.” It explained that the G20’s original mission is to discuss the challenges facing the world economy, raise the lives and living standards of citizens in every country, and deliver solutions that bring economic prosperity to all.

The United States wrote in the statement that the ministers held “candid discussions” on U.S. priorities. It named energy security, supply chain resilience and geopolitical tensions, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as specific agenda items. The statement ends with the line: “The U.S. G20 Presidency appreciates G20 members’ contributions to our candid, substantive deliberations in Atlanta.” It is not a joint declaration whose text all members agreed on, but a format in which the presidency summarizes the discussions and takes responsibility for the summary.

The meeting was organized in three sessions. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Session I dealt with geopolitical tensions, Session II with energy and Session III with supply chains. In the captions of meeting photos released by the State Department, Session II is titled “Energy and Economic Growth” and Session III “Supply Chains and Closing Remarks.”

At the start of the press conference, Rubio described the direction of the meeting as stemming from President Trump’s instructions. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has established a clear mission for the G20 to get back to basics and to focus on the core purpose for why this forum was created in the first place,” Rubio said. “This week in Atlanta, at the foreign ministers’ level, we executed on that directive,” he added, saying the talks focused on economic, energy, technology and supply chain challenges. Rubio said everything discussed would be found in “my chair statement that will be coming out, if it hasn’t come out already.”

## Rubio: shared view of the problem, differences over the solution

Rubio did not hide the limits of the agreement. After explaining that food security problems are growing as sea lanes are exposed to attacks and coercion, he said members are aligned in goal and in recognizing that the problem is serious. But he added, “I cannot say we are aligned on how to solve it.” He said his closing remarks on critical minerals were in the same vein. “We all agree there’s a problem, but obviously there’s work to be done to find agreement collectively on solutions,” Rubio said.

Asked what the biggest obstacle to agreement was, Rubio pointed first to defining the problem. “If you can’t even agree on what the problems are, you can’t make progress,” he said, adding that the meeting confirmed a “universal recognition” that critical minerals, supply chains, freedom of navigation and food security concern every country. He said countries then debated the causes of the problems and their solutions. Rubio explained that the search for solutions is held back by “very acute challenges” such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the conflicts in the Middle East, the civil war in Sudan and the conflict between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. “I wouldn’t pretend to you today that we are close to finding universally accepted solutions to these problems,” he said, while stressing that within the G20 there are countries that are actually working together on supply chains and critical minerals.

Neither the State Department nor Rubio said which country objected to which wording. A difference did show in the level of attendance, however. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “the foreign ministers of all G20 members, except for China’s executive vice minister of foreign affairs (vice-ministerial level)” attended the meeting. China was the only G20 member whose foreign minister did not attend in person. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended.

## Chair’s Statement stresses energy sovereignty and respect for each country’s choices

The longest part of the Chair’s Statement is on energy security. The State Department wrote that “every country is sensitive to energy prices,” saying everyone feels the burden whenever the price of gasoline, of the natural gas that heats homes, or of the electricity that powers digital life rises. It then stated flatly: “No country can have prosperity without energy.”

The department also took direct aim at the reality that government regulation has obstructed energy production. The statement includes the sentence: “Far too often governments have placed barriers to energy production and punished their own people with higher costs.” Having access to energy is not enough, it said; energy must be abundant and affordable for all. The presidency said in the statement that “abundant energy is the backbone of booming economies and the foundation of lasting prosperity.”

The United States also pointed out that misguided policies in one region have blocked energy access in others. As drivers of rising demand, it listed population growth, economic development, industrialization, electrification, cooling demand, growing demand for cars and trucks, and the unprecedented growth of digitalization and information technology. On technology, it wrote that advances in civil nuclear technology, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, can meet growing electricity demand and strengthen energy security. It also stated that nuclear power may not be a desirable option for some countries.

The conclusion of the energy section is sovereignty. The United States said in the statement that each country is on its own energy path and needs different energy sources, and that “one country should not be bound by what another country has chosen to use.” It added: “Every country is entitled to make its own sovereign choices.”

Rubio confirmed that climate change was not on the agenda of the meeting. Asked whether climate change was discussed, he answered, “It wasn’t one of the topics on the agenda, but of course a number of countries raised it,” saying Brazil and others raised it in their statements. At the press conference, Rubio said energy costs are embedded in the cost of everything we buy, adding, “which is why the U.S.’s energy dominance and its self-sustainability policies are so important.”

## Supply chains, critical minerals cooperation and wariness of weaponized food also in the statement

On supply chains, the United States put forward three pillars: fertilizer, raw materials and critical minerals. Fertilizer is essential to food production and food security, raw materials to basic manufacturing, and critical minerals to energy security, advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies, it explained. The presidency said G20 members should build supply chain resilience starting with more information sharing, greater transparency and attracting investment. It also said that revising permitting procedures and regulations could further raise supply chain efficiency.

The role of the private sector was also stressed. “Governments alone cannot solve this problem,” the presidency said, adding that governments should work closely with the private sector. Such cooperation could speed up the processing, refining and recycling of critical minerals, it said. The State Department wrote that a stable and predictable domestic regulatory environment and a robust contractual framework that supports long-term contracts underpin the investment needed to expand energy and critical minerals supply chains.

In the section on geopolitical tensions, a sentence was included aimed at the use of food as a weapon. The presidency pointed out in the statement that “the weaponization of normal food supply chains,” in which a government slows, halts or blocks food trade to exert coercive pressure on another sovereign state over unrelated geopolitical issues, is increasingly frequent in the trading system. It added, “It is important for the international community to agree that trade in food and agricultural products must not be used as a tool of economic and political coercion.” The State Department did not name any specific country in the statement.

At the press conference, Rubio extended the scope of maritime coercion beyond the Middle East. After mentioning the attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, he said, “the hostile coercion, of course, that we see — maybe not as kinetic but certainly still concerning — in the South China Sea and the Strait of Taiwan and elsewhere that also puts economies in danger.” On the Indo-Pacific, he said, “some territorial claims that we do not recognize,” explaining that the United States keeps its presence in the region and operates jointly with partners “to continue to make clear that we do not accept illegitimate territorial claims on waterways that are either international or not territorial waters of any single nation.” On the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting held on the same occasion, he said the Quad is not an anti-China coalition but a forum that voices concern about certain behavior, while adding that those behaviors are “coming repetitively from one country; that’s going to be obvious to everybody.”

## Rubio calls Iran’s attacks on merchant ships an instrument of state policy

The United States wrote in the Chair’s Statement that in 2026 the world felt the effects of a “major energy supply disruption.” It went on to say that ensuring safe and uninterrupted energy flows, including safe navigation and transit passage in international waterways and the security of critical infrastructure, is essential to global economic stability and energy security.

Rubio clearly placed responsibility for the problem on Iran. “We now live in a world where the Iranian regime actively and openly targets commercial vessels for attack,” he said, “not naval vessels … not submarines,” but “a commercial vessel with cargo, oil, natural gas, and we are going to try to sink it.” Rubio said Iran is openly attacking vessels “as a tool of statecraft.” He said U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has done “a phenomenal job” protecting this shipping and that the volume of fuel now passing through the strait has recovered to a level similar to before the conflict. He added, however, that U.S. forces have to defend ships against drones and missiles almost every night.

Rubio also pointed to the Gulf states’ stake. “It’s not our oil and natural gas that’s flowing through the Straits of Hormuz; it’s theirs, and it’s the lifeblood of their economies,” he said, adding that CENTCOM is nonetheless the one protecting that flow now. He also said that President Trump has asked countries multiple times to join in protecting merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, but cooperation has been “very limited,” and the burden has mostly fallen on the United States.

On negotiations with Iran, Rubio gave no timeline. He said negotiations have effectively never stopped, that talks continue directly or through mediators, and that President Trump prefers a diplomatic, peaceful resolution if possible. He drew a line, however, saying the United States cannot accept an agreement that endangers U.S. national security or fails to address its core concerns. Rubio said Iran is at the center of instability in the Middle East through Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iran militias in Iraq. He added that Iran’s possession of weapons of mass destruction “will never be allowed to happen as long as President Trump is in the White House.” On Saudi Arabia, he said the United States has kept its defense cooperation commitments and will continue to do so.

## Lavrov invitation explained as a channel for peace talks

The Chair’s Statement did not directly mention the war in Ukraine. At the press conference, Rubio named the war as one of the sharp challenges that block progress toward solutions. Asked why Lavrov had been invited and why the door had been left open to Russian President Putin attending the Miami summit, Rubio answered with the logic of negotiation. “In order to end the war in Ukraine peacefully, you’re going to have to have a negotiated settlement,” Rubio said, and asked, “How can you have a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine if you don’t have the ability to talk to both Russia and Ukraine?” He said Putin’s attendance in Miami had not been announced or confirmed by Russia.

Rubio stressed that President Trump does not see meeting someone as legitimizing that person. He said Trump is “a person that comes from the common-sense world of business, not from a traditional foreign policy or traditional and archaic political class,” and that he does not accept the idea that a meeting means agreeing with everything the other side does. He also said that, because Russia holds a large number of nuclear weapons, a channel of communication between the United States and Russia must be maintained in any case. “If we can play a role in mediating an end to that conflict, the United States is prepared to play that role,” Rubio said.

On his contact with Lavrov, he said it was not a formal meeting. “We didn’t have a meeting. We spoke,” Rubio said, adding that they briefly talked about the possibility of the two countries’ leaders meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum next month. Whether a settlement is possible is “what we’re trying to find out,” Rubio said, adding, “I don’t think anyone here is claiming that we’re on the verge of a negotiated settlement.” He also said that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are working almost exclusively on Ukraine and Iran.

Black Sea grain shipments were raised as a partial solution. Rubio said international interest is growing in acting as guarantor or mediator of Black Sea grain shipments and that the United States is reviewing a proposal sent by Türkiye one to two weeks ago. He said India had also indicated it would offer ideas. Rubio explained that such an arrangement “doesn’t solve the war” but could reduce the spillover onto the food security of vulnerable countries. He called the war “very deadly and destructive,” saying Kyiv is attacked every night on its energy infrastructure and that 20,000 people a month are dying on the Russian side as well. Asked whether Ukrainian President Zelensky might attend the Miami summit, he answered, “I wouldn’t rule it out,” saying the decision rests with President Trump.

## Cho Hyun raises North Korea-Russia military cooperation; Korea, U.S. and Japan sign Arctic memorandum

According to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun raised, in Session I, international coordination to respond to threats to free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and to food security. Cho said Korea has joined the EU-led “Commitment to Uphold the International Law of the Sea,” which opposes unlawful restrictions on passage through international straits. Cho said the deepening of North Korea-Russia military cooperation has a serious impact on the Korean Peninsula and regional security. In explaining the government’s position on the mine explosion incident in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), he said dialogue and communication between the two Koreas are more important than ever. The ministry’s announcement contained no language holding North Korea responsible for provocations; instead it described a request for support and cooperation for “peaceful coexistence and easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

In Session II, Cho said Korea would play the role of an “energy hub” linking oil-producing and consuming countries, drawing on its refining capacity, stockpiling infrastructure and maritime networks. In Session III, he introduced Korea’s participation in the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE) and said the voluntary cooperation on critical minerals agreed at the G20 energy ministers’ meeting in September should be developed into substantive supply chain cooperation.

On the same occasion, a Korea-U.S.-Japan foreign ministers’ meeting was held on the 30th. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the three ministers urged North Korea to join efforts to ease tensions and establish peace, and agreed to maintain a robust deterrence posture against North Korea. They also shared assessments of regional and global developments, including attempts to unilaterally change the status quo. They agreed to strengthen cooperation on diversifying critical minerals supply chains, small modular reactors and artificial intelligence (AI). The three ministers signed a Korea-U.S.-Japan Arctic memorandum of cooperation (MOC). At the press conference, Rubio described the memorandum as a cooperation memorandum on a “transnational Arctic-Pacific partnership,” saying, “together we’ll ensure that the Arctic remains a region free of dominion or coercion.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Cho also met separately with Rubio and discussed issues including visas. Asked about the visa issue of a South Korean lawmaker, Rubio answered, “we’ll work through the visa issues,” saying there was “one particular visa individually that there was an issue about regarding behavior perhaps a couple decades ago,” and adding, “we’ll work through that at a bilateral basis, not in a press conference.” On North Korea, he said that, as in his first term, President Trump, “he’ll talk to anybody,” and that he is open if Kim Jong Un is prepared to discuss matters of concern to the United States and its allies. He said, however, that nothing is scheduled.

## December Miami summit presented as the culmination of U.S. leadership

The United States also included the Ebola response in the Chair’s Statement. The State Department said that at an event in New York in September, during the U.S. presidency, $2 billion was raised to fight Ebola and that the funds drove a more aggressive response. It then praised the efforts of frontline responders and communities.

The United States invited Poland, which is not a member, as a guest country. Rubio said Poland is making great progress in both the economy and security by putting its own national interests and citizens first. “President Trump strongly believes Poland deserves a seat at this table of world leaders,” Rubio said, adding that he hopes Poland and other rising powers will be invited next year as well.

The last item on the meeting’s schedule was “sports diplomacy.” In the statement, the State Department wrote that the ministers thanked the people of Atlanta and Georgia for their hospitality and had the opportunity to experience the University of Georgia–University of Florida game, a leading rivalry in American college football. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cho also watched the game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with other foreign ministers at Rubio’s invitation.

Rubio presented the work of this presidency as an achievement of the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. “The U.S. presidency of the G20 has been one of the many highlights of America’s 250th birthday celebration,” Rubio said, adding, “We’ve successfully used this platform to build global initiatives that truly benefit the American people.” He said the summit led by President Trump in Florida in December will be “a capstone to this year of American leadership.” The United States ended the statement with the sentence: “We look forward to the Miami Summit and the UK Presidency in 2027.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will continue to coordinate with members through 2028, when Korea holds the presidency.

## Sources (KST)

- U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson · 2026-11-01 (U.S. Eastern 10-31) · G20 Chair's Statement G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting · https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesman/2026/10/g20-chairs-statement-g20-foreign-ministers-meeting/
- U.S. Department of State (original text posted by the G20 Research Group, University of Toronto) · 2026-11-01 (U.S. Eastern 10-31) · Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a Press Availability · https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2026/261031-rubio-press-conference.html
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Republic of Korea) · 2026-11-01 · Foreign Minister Cho Hyun attends G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting (Oct. 30-31, Atlanta) · https://www.mofa.go.kr/www/brd/m\_4080/view.do?seq=377716
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Republic of Korea) · 2026-10-31 · Results of the Korea-U.S.-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting (Oct. 30) · https://www.mofa.go.kr/www/brd/m\_4080/view.do?seq=377707
- U.S. Department of State Flickr · 2026-11-01 (U.S. Eastern 10-31) · Secretary Rubio Participates in G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting Session III · https://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/55623235606/