JAKARTA, Indonesia — Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday, avoiding a possible confrontation with the US and its allies over his war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are to attend the two-day summit in Bali that starts Nov. 15. The summit was to have been the primary time Biden and Putin would have been together at a gathering since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the Chief of Support for G-20 events told reporters in Denpasar, Indonesia, that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation.
“The Indonesian government respects the choice of the Russian government, which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a really friendly telephone conversation,” said Pandjaitan, who can be the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment.
Widodo, who’s hosting the G-20 and Pandjaitan, said that “we hope that the great communication between the 2 leaders can reduce tensions between Russia and Ukraine.”
The G-20 is the largest of three summits being held in Southeast Asia this week and next, and it remained unclear if Lavrov will represent Russia in any respect of them. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit began Thursday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, followed by the G-20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
Biden will attend ASEAN and the G-20 while Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to APEC.
Biden had ruled out meeting with Putin if he had attended the summit, and said the one conversation he could have possibly had with the Russian leader can be to debate a deal to free Americans imprisoned in Russia.
Biden administration officials said that they had been coordinating with global counterparts to isolate Putin if he had decided to participate either in person or virtually. They’ve discussed boycotts or other displays of condemnation.
Putin’s decision to not attend the G-20 comes as Russia’s forces in Ukraine have suffered significant setbacks. Russia’s military said it would withdraw from Kherson, which is the one Ukrainian regional capital it captured and a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Russia’s announced retreat from Kherson together with a possible stalemate in fighting over the winter could provide each countries a chance to barter peace, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
He said as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded within the war, now in its ninth month. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” Milley added.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday, avoiding a possible confrontation with the US and its allies over his war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are to attend the two-day summit in Bali that starts Nov. 15. The summit was to have been the primary time Biden and Putin would have been together at a gathering since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the Chief of Support for G-20 events told reporters in Denpasar, Indonesia, that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation.
“The Indonesian government respects the choice of the Russian government, which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a really friendly telephone conversation,” said Pandjaitan, who can be the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment.
Widodo, who’s hosting the G-20 and Pandjaitan, said that “we hope that the great communication between the 2 leaders can reduce tensions between Russia and Ukraine.”
The G-20 is the largest of three summits being held in Southeast Asia this week and next, and it remained unclear if Lavrov will represent Russia in any respect of them. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit began Thursday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, followed by the G-20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
Biden will attend ASEAN and the G-20 while Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to APEC.
Biden had ruled out meeting with Putin if he had attended the summit, and said the one conversation he could have possibly had with the Russian leader can be to debate a deal to free Americans imprisoned in Russia.
Biden administration officials said that they had been coordinating with global counterparts to isolate Putin if he had decided to participate either in person or virtually. They’ve discussed boycotts or other displays of condemnation.
Putin’s decision to not attend the G-20 comes as Russia’s forces in Ukraine have suffered significant setbacks. Russia’s military said it would withdraw from Kherson, which is the one Ukrainian regional capital it captured and a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Russia’s announced retreat from Kherson together with a possible stalemate in fighting over the winter could provide each countries a chance to barter peace, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
He said as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded within the war, now in its ninth month. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” Milley added.
