Indonesian President Joko Widodo acknowledged for the first time on Monday that he does not believe his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will attend next week’s G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, although the Kremlin is still keeping the question open.
Widodo has a «strong feeling» that Putin will eventually fall off the list of attendees, as he himself acknowledged in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper. The Indonesian leader spoke last week by phone with Putin, in a round of contacts that also included Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.
The Indonesian government said last week that 17 leaders had already confirmed attendance at what will be the first major G20 summit since war broke out in Ukraine in February. The mere invitation to Putin had already made other leaders uncomfortable and Zelenski has made it clear that he will not participate in the forum if the Russian president is present.
Moscow has for now limited itself to confirming that it will attend, without clarifying the level of its delegation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Putin’s possible attendance or absence will be clarified this week, according to the TASS news agency.
