According to Joko Widodo, the leader of the People's Republic of China is also going to fly to Bali.
G20 summit in person Kremlin master Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are planning to visit, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwaite. The G20 summit is scheduled for November and should be held in Indonesia.
“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin also told me that he would come,” Widodo said.
The publication emphasized that the President of Indonesia for the first time confirmed the intentions of both Putin and Xi to attend the summit in person. It is indicated that the presence of both of them would lead to a confrontation with US President Joe Biden and other democratic leaders, who plan to meet in person for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The attack, which took place after Putin and Xi announced a “boundless” partnership, caused a split in the G20 over the introduction of sanctions against Russia.
China's Foreign Ministry did not comment on Xi Jinping's plans to travel to the summit. In particular, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he has never left the borders of his country.
The Kremlin spokesman also refused to comment. However, another Russian official familiar with the situation confirmed to the publication that Putin plans to personally attend the G20 summit. In particular, the Kremlin statement says that Putin and Widodo discussed preparations for the summit during a telephone conversation.
The publication also drew attention to the fact that when Putin is present at the summit, the first meeting between the master of the Kremlin and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, may take place since the beginning of the invasion. After all, the head of the Ukrainian state can also be in Bali.
As for US President Joe Biden, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he called for the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the G20. And US officials previously put pressure on Indonesia to prevent Putin from attending the summit.
Meanwhile, tensions are also rising between the United States and China, although Biden and Xi are leaving open the possibility of holding their first meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
China suspended talks with the United States on defense and a number of other areas after a visit to Taiwan Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. In turn, the White House criticized Beijing's military exercises around the island.
“The rivalry between the big countries is really worrying… We want this region to be stable, peaceful, so that we can build economic growth. And I think it's not just Indonesia: Asian countries want the same,” said 61-year-old Joko Widodo.
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Let us remind you that the seventeenth meeting of the heads of state of the Group of Twenty (G20) will take place on November 15-16 in Indonesia, on the island of Bali. It was preceded by ministerial meetings at the level of heads of foreign affairs and finance ministries.
At the end of June, Joko Widodo met with Putin in Moscow, the next day after his talks with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Vidodo also invited Zelensky to the November 15-16 summit in Bali.
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To this, the Ukrainian president replied that he would participate in the summit depending on who else would participate. Later, the adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, noted that Zelenskyi considers it necessary to be in Ukraine, because there is a war going on. But if Putin comes to the summit, the Ukrainian delegation will have to consider the necessity of its presence.
