Putin, Xi plan to attend G20 summit: Indonesian President

Jakarta: Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are both expected to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced.

“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” dpa news agency quoted Widodo as saying to Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday.

Indonesia currently holds the G20 presidency.

Widodo had invited Putin but the Kremlin has so far not confirmed the Russian President’s plans either way.

Bloomberg could not initially obtain confirmation of Putin and Xi’s attendance plans from Russian and Chinese sources.

Putin’s participation in the summit is considered problematic in the West amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and several countries have put in doubt whether they would participate if he attended in person.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been invited.

China is also experiencing heightened tensions with the US that were exacerbated by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, which was followed by a US congressional delegation visiting Taipei.

Beijing called the moves provocations and launched large-scale military manoeuvres around the democratic island republic in response.

Indonesia is seeking trade and investment and is not seeking to join any bloc, Widodo told Bloomberg.

“Indonesia wants to be friends with everyone,” he said.

“We don’t have problems with any country.”