Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend next week’s Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ meeting in Bali, an Indonesian government official told on Thursday. Putin will be represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Jodi Mahardi.
According to him, the Russian president should join one of the meetings virtually. As G20 host, Indonesia resisted pressure from Western countries and Ukraine to withdraw its invitation to Putin from the leaders’ summit and expel Russia from the group over the war in Ukraine, saying it did not have the authority to do so without consensus among members.
In an interview , Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Russia was welcomed to the summit because he feared it would be overshadowed by a “very worrying” rise in international tensions. “The G20 is not supposed to be a political forum. It is supposed to be about economics and development,” he said.
Indonesia also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said he would not attend if Putin did, and is expected to join virtually. A number of other world leaders are expected to attend the summit, which begins on November 15, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
