Jakarta, Indonesia (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit In Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday that he has avoided a potential confrontation with the United States and its allies over his war in Ukraine.
Luhut Pinsar Pandjetan, head of support for G20 events, said Putin’s decision not to attend was “for the best of all of us”.
US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are scheduled to attend the two-day summit starting on November 15. The summit was the first time Biden and Putin had met each other since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Indonesian President Joko Widodo hosts the event on the island of Bali.
“He was officially informed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit, and he will be represented by a high-ranking official, and this was discussed by President Joko Widodo and Putin in previous phone conversations,” Pandjaitan said after the meeting. Security officials in Denpasar, the capital of Bali.
“Whatever happens to Russia’s decision, it is for our common interest and the best of all of us,” added Panjitan, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment. He said earlier that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will head the Russian delegation.
Pandjaitan did not know why Putin decided not to attend but said, “Maybe because President Putin is busy in his homeland, and we also have to respect that.” Panjitan stressed that the same reasons may keep Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at home as well.
Widodo traveled earlier this year to Kyiv and Moscow to try to get the two leaders to sit in Bali and bring peace.
Putin’s decision not to attend the G-20 comes at a time when Russian forces in Ukraine have suffered major setbacks. The Russian military announced that it would withdraw from Kherson, the only Ukrainian regional capital it had captured and the gateway to Russian-occupied Crimea.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that Russia’s announced withdrawal from Kherson along with a possible stalemate in the fighting due to the winter could provide both countries with an opportunity to negotiate peace.
He said up to 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “more than 100,000 Russian soldiers” had been killed or wounded in the war, now in its ninth month. “The same, perhaps, on the Ukrainian side,” Mili added.
The G20 is the largest of the three summits to be held in Southeast Asia this week and next, and it is unclear whether Lavrov will represent Russia at all of these summits. Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit It kicked off Thursday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, followed by the G20 and then the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
Biden will attend ASEAN and the G-20 while Vice President Kamala Harris travels to APEC. Biden is expected to meet Xi in Bali.
Biden has ruled out meeting with Putin if he had attended the summit, and said the only conversation he could have with the Russian leader would be to discuss a deal to release Americans imprisoned in Russia..
Biden administration officials said they were coordinating with their global counterparts to isolate Putin if he had decided to participate either in person or virtually. They discussed boycotts or other manifestations of condemnation.
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