Marco Rubio will chair G20 foreign ministers and senior envoys meeting in Atlanta. Deep divisions over wars, navigation and trade threaten meaningful collective action.

Foreign ministers and senior envoys from the Group of 20 major economies, including Russia and China, are meeting in Atlanta amid deep divisions over wars and other global crises affecting international security and trade, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will chair the meeting on Friday and Saturday. The talks will set the stage for a G20 leaders' summit to be hosted by President Donald Trump at his Miami golf club in December, though there appears to be little chance of agreement on several contentious issues.

These include the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US-Israeli war against Iran, US tariffs and China's actions in the South China Sea. The developments have contributed to higher global fuel costs and uncertainty over trade.

According to PTI, US officials said their main priority was to resolve differences over freedom of navigation, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, the Black Sea and the South China Sea. Discussions will cover Iran, the Russia-Ukraine war, and China's relations with its smaller neighbours.

The prospect of fresh US military intervention in Iran also hangs over the meeting and has caused concern across the region, including in G20 member Saudi Arabia.

The Associated Press has reported that US officials told several Middle Eastern countries and regional allies to prepare for possible renewed military strikes against Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections and for the possibility of Iranian retaliation.

Some G20 countries have expressed concern over the US invitation to Russia amid its intensified attacks on Ukraine. Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. China is sending a deputy foreign minister, while most other countries have sent their top diplomats, according to US officials cited by PTI.

It remains unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept Trump's invitation to the December summit in Florida. US allies in Europe are uneasy about Russia's presence, particularly after Trump waived fresh sanctions on Moscow and temporarily restricted operational and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, pushing ties with Kyiv to new lows.

Russia's foreign ministry complained about problems in securing visas for its delegation, which were resolved only at the last minute. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the complications had created the impression that “not everyone in Washington is happy” about Lavrov attending.

Zakharova said Lavrov would use the meeting to call for the “swift reform of global economic institutions” and promote Russia's vision of a “multipolar world”.

Lavrov has rarely travelled to NATO member countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and severe sanctions were imposed on Moscow. His presence in Atlanta is likely to create domestic political problems for Trump days before the midterm elections and unsettle the G20's Western members, said Ian Kelly, a US ambassador to Georgia during Trump's first term.

“It seems politically boneheaded to invite him,” said Kelly, who now teaches international relations and diplomacy at Northwestern University near Chicago.

Kelly said many Republican lawmakers, already concerned about losing their congressional majorities, were “cranky” over Trump's conciliatory approach towards Putin. He added that Democrats could use the invitation to attack the Republican Party ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Lavrov's attendance would also almost certainly undermine efforts to reach a common position on the Russia-Ukraine war, Kelly said. “It will definitely take away from the message that at least the Western members want to send.”Ukraine, which is not a G20 member but had been invited to previous meetings, was not invited this year. US officials said they had made a conscious decision to include only formal members of the group.

South Africa is also absent from the Atlanta invitee list amid several disputes with the Trump administration. South Africa chaired the G20 last year, but senior US officials, including Trump and Rubio, stayed away from the meetings it hosted.

The US State Department said Rubio viewed the gathering as a way “to advance practical cooperation on shared economic and security challenges”. It said his priority was to seek solutions to “geopolitical crises contributing to global economic shocks”, including threats to freedom of navigation, energy and food security, and critical mineral supply chains.

However, there is scepticism over whether G20 members can overcome their differences. Elaine Dezenski, head of the Centre on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that takes a hard line on Iran and other issues, said the gathering would be more of a test than a meeting.

“The Atlanta meeting takes place within an environment of widening disagreement over the global economic order, and the right test is whether the US can build cooperation with partners when all member consensus appears to be out of reach,” she said during a conference call with reporters.

Dezenski said the Trump administration had shown a willingness, and considerable success, in working outside the G20 framework to build coalitions supporting its foreign policy goals. “The meeting offers a chance to assess whether the US can turn shared economic security concerns into more meaningful cooperation with partners even without the consensus,” she said.

The Atlanta meeting will therefore focus on cooperation over economic and security challenges, but divisions over Russia, Ukraine, Iran, China and trade are expected to make a unified G20 position difficult.