Indonesia’s president has mentioned he has a “robust impression” that Vladimir Putin is not going to 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 warfare towards 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 might be his first assembly for the reason that begin of his invasion in February with Biden and different Nato leaders, who’ve supplied tens of billions of {dollars} in army help 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 Occasions.
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 degree. 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 shouldn’t be meant to be a political discussion board,” he mentioned. “It’s meant to be about economics and growth.”
The Indonesians intend to place meals and power safety on the centre of subsequent week’s discussions, two points which have turn out to be world considerations 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 common meeting decision condemning Moscow’s tried annexation of 4 areas of jap 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 warfare Putin has made overseas journeys to 4 former Soviet states in Central Asia — Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — and Iran.
