Russia informed Indonesia about Putin’s plans to participate in the G20 summit
Indonesia has been “tentatively” notified of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention to take part in the G20 summit to be held on November 15-16 this year in Bali. About it reported on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Foreign Ministry clarified that Putin received an official invitation to the summit from Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and the format of his participation in the event “is subject to clarification depending on the situation in the world and taking into account the sanitary and epidemiological danger in Southeast Asia.”
Invitations to the leaders of the G20 countries power Indonesia in September. Volodymyr Zelensky, who is not a member of this association, has been invited to the summit of the President of Ukraine. Putin informed his assistant Yury Ushakov about the “positive answer”. However, some Western politicians raise doubts about this: for example, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, citing the President of Indonesia, said that the Russian leader would not come to Bali, but could take part in the summit remotely via videoconferencing.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling Putin a “rogue figure”, said he would “be amazed” if he did arrive in Bali to be captured at the summit. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this statement, noted that the head of the British government allows “many different statements and statements that are not entirely successful and monstrous,” but in any case, this rhetoric in no way accepts the decision of Putin himself.
The Kremlin spokesman stressed that until the beginning of November there is still a significant amount of time in which the president will have time to make a decision “in the best way connected” with the interests of the country. Peskov added that Putin’s participation in the G20 summit is possible “in any format” – he can either go there personally or “delegate someone.”
Bloomberg reports that the authorities of some countries, due to Putin’s likely participation in the G20 summit, are exploring the possibility of sending the first hard-hitting officials of higher level or general interests. In addition, according to this publication, the upcoming summit may be the first in the history of the association, which comes out without the official results of the communiqué.
“Officials, including those from the US, have been working to convince Indonesia to make decisions [из G20] or, to some extent, condemn its actions in Ukraine,” but Indonesia has announced that it adheres to a policy of “impartiality,” according to Bloomberg.
At the end of 2014, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the Russian delegation participated in the G20 summit in Australia, but the leaders of other countries were reluctant to contact her, and as a result, she “left early” the event. “At some point, Putin approached the then Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, to shake hands with him, to which he said: “I will shake hands with you, but only to tell you – you must get out of Ukraine “,” Bloomberg recalled.
The United States raised the issue of excluding Russia from the G20 in March 2022. The head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, Zbigniew Rau, said that Poland could “replace” Russia in this association. Reuters, citing an official of a certain Asian country coming in the top twenty wrote: “It is impossible to make a decision of Russia from the G20 if Moscow does not make such a decision on its own. Probably to deprive Russia of membership in the G20, just not.” A similar opinion was expressed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, emphasizing that no member of the G20 has the right to others.
“G20 is a multilateral format, where points of view are different. Obviously, the Americans will continue to put pressure on different countries, but as we see, a number of states prefer their independent sovereign point of view,” Peskov commented on the US initiative.