“I invited President Zelensky to participate in the G20 summit,” said the Indonesian leader, suggesting that a compromise had been found for the meeting scheduled in Bali, while the members of the group have been deeply divided since the beginning. Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Indonesia, which chairs the G20 this year, has come under strong pressure from the West, led by the United States, to exclude Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
But Jakarta resisted, arguing that its position as host required it to remain “impartial” and US President Joe Biden, in particular, had suggested Ukraine’s participation to find a balance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet on Wednesday that he had been invited by Indonesia to the summit, following a telephone conversation with his Indonesian counterpart.
Joko Widodo also spoke with the Russian president on Thursday. “On this occasion, President Putin thanked Indonesia for the invitation to the G20 summit and said he would attend,” the Indonesian president said.
Russian doubt
During this conversation, Mr. Putin wished the “success” of Indonesia’s presidency at the G20 and assured that Russia would contribute to it, declared to the press the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov.
But “for now it is premature to communicate the terms of Russian participation,” he said, leaving doubts regarding the format of Russian participation.
Washington, for its part, expressed its reluctance.
US President Joe Biden “has publicly expressed his opposition to President Putin’s presence at the G20,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday, however welcoming the Ukrainians’ invitation to the summit.
She added that the United States was in contact with the Indonesians and that the Russian invitation dated back to before the invasion, which began on February 24.
Russia’s participation in international summits should “not be acted as if nothing had happened”, also declared a spokeswoman for the State Department, who did not say whether Washington would refuse, or not, to join the meeting.
Since the beginning of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, the West has sought to isolate Russia on the diplomatic scene.
A meeting of G20 finance ministers in April in Washington illustrated the deep divisions of the group of major world economies with the boycott of certain meetings by the United States and several allies, protesting once morest the participation of Russians.
no weapons
But Indonesia, like most major emerging countries, wants to maintain a position of neutrality.
Joko Widodo clarified on Friday that Indonesia would not send weapons to Ukraine, in response to a request from the Ukrainian president.
“I repeated, in accordance with the constitution and the principles of Indonesian foreign policy, that it is forbidden to send weapons to other countries,” he said while offering humanitarian aid to kyiv.
The war in Ukraine and the G20 were also on the menu for a meeting on Friday between the Indonesian leader and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, following which they showed their convergences.
Joko Widodo highlighted the role of the G20 arena in enabling dialogue and resolving the humanitarian and economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine, while calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
“I agreed with the (Indonesian) President that the military attacks once morest Ukraine were intolerable, and that a violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity through force and intimidation, and an attempt to change the status quo unilaterally by force, is intolerable in any region,” the Japanese prime minister said.