Seventeen international leaders have already confirmed their attendance at the G20 meeting to be held in Bali on November 15 and 16, according to the Indonesian government, which has not clarified whether the list of attendees includes Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Indonesian authorities have not made any distinction in the distribution of the invitations, regardless of the broad consensus within the bloc against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
It has also reached out to the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, who, if he were to participate, would probably do so telematically. The Ukrainian government has already spoken at a ministerial summit held in July, from which the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, left abruptly after his speech.
An Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, has confirmed that 17 heads of state and government have already confirmed they will attend the Bali forum, although he has ceded the final announcement to the president, Joko Widodo, expected closer to the date of the summit, according to Bloomberg news agency.
Widodo has intensified his round of contacts in recent days, with calls with Putin and Zelenski. The Ukrainian leader confirmed Thursday on his Twitter feed that they discussed «preparations» for the upcoming summit, without going into further details.
«We discussed the importance of maintaining the Grain Initiative. Indonesia is ready to remain a guarantor of global food security,» Zelenski said, referring to the agreement with Moscow allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
Putin said in late October that «no decision has been made» on his possible trip, nor did the Kremlin give any clues on Wednesday when taking stock of the content of the telephone conversation with the Indonesian president. Russia did want to praise Indonesia’s «depoliticized» presidency of the G20.
