Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit to be held in Bali, Indonesia from November 15 to 16, Bloomberg News reported on the 19th, citing Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). reported
In an interview with Bloomberg the day before, President Jokowi said, “Xi Jinping (President) will come (to Bali to attend the summit). “President Putin also said he would come to me,” he said. However, China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the schedule of Xi’s overseas visit, Bloomberg reported. A spokesman for the Kremlin (Russia’s presidential office) also declined to comment, but an unnamed government official said Putin was currently planning to attend the G20 summit.
The presence of President Xi and Putin might set the stage for a confrontation between US President Joe Biden and other heads of US allies, Bloomberg predicted. He added that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the G20 was divided over Russian sanctions.
He also said that the US and China leaders will meet amid heightened tensions between the US and China and between China and Taiwan following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Earlier, in protest once morest Pelosi’s visit, China announced that it was canceling defense talks with the United States and suspending negotiations on climate change between the two countries.
In addition, if President Putin attends, he will be able to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Zelensky is expected to attend the event.
By Park Joo-yeon, staff reporter grumpy_cat@hankyung.com