Indonesia’s president has ‘robust impression’ Putin will miss G20 summit in Bali

Indonesia’s president has mentioned he has a “robust impression” that Vladimir Putin won’t attend subsequent week’s summit of G20 leaders in Bali, the primary assembly of the world’s largest economies for the reason that Russian president launched his full-scale struggle in opposition to Ukraine.

The suggestion from Joko Widodo, who will host the summit, comes after the US rejected a proposal by Indonesian officers to rearrange a bilateral assembly between Putin and US president Joe Biden on the occasion, a senior US official mentioned final month.

There was hypothesis for weeks about Putin’s potential attendance on the Bali gathering, amid heightened tensions between Russia and western powers over Ukraine.

If the Russian president had been to attend, it could be his first assembly for the reason that begin of his invasion in February with Biden and different Nato leaders, who’ve offered tens of billions of {dollars} in navy assist to Ukraine and imposed myriad financial sanctions on Moscow.

Widodo spoke to Putin final Wednesday concerning the G20 occasion and because of that decision believed the Russian chief wouldn’t be attending, the Indonesian president mentioned in an interview with the Monetary Instances.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Peskov informed reporters earlier on Monday that the Kremlin would decide about Putin’s attendance this week.

Putin mentioned final month: “Russia will certainly be represented [in Bali] at a excessive stage. Possibly I will go, too. I will give it some thought.”

Widodo emphasised that the Russians remained welcome to attend the G20 assembly and that Indonesia hoped to facilitate worldwide dialogue to counter what he referred to as a “very worrying” rise in worldwide tensions.

He additionally expressed frustration that geopolitical tensions would overshadow the summit: “The G20 is just not meant to be a political discussion board,” he mentioned. “It’s meant to be about economics and improvement.”

The Indonesians intend to place meals and power safety on the centre of subsequent week’s discussions, two points which have change into international issues because of Putin’s invasion.

The G20 includes 19 states and the EU. Not one of the governments sided with Russia to oppose a UN normal meeting decision condemning Moscow’s tried annexation of 4 areas of japanese Ukraine final month. Simply three G20 members abstained: China, India and South Africa.

Widodo has additionally invited Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the summit as a visitor. Zelenskyy mentioned final week that he wouldn’t attend if Putin did.

Since launching the struggle Putin has made international journeys to 4 former Soviet states in Central Asia — Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — and Iran.