Russia President Vladimir Putin will skip a gathering of world leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations on the Indonesian resort island of Bali next week, choosing to stay at home instead.
Indonesian and Russian officials said on Thursday that Putin will send Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his place.
The Russian leader’s absence means he avoids the prospect of sharing a room with U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in February.
Biden has previously called Putin a “war criminal” and ruled out meeting him in Bali if he went unless the conversation involved the release of Americans held in Russia.
Reuters reports Indonesia had resisted pressure from Western countries and Ukraine to withdraw its invitation to Putin from the summit and expel Russia from the group over the war in Ukraine.
It pleaded a lack of authority to do so without consensus among members as the reason for issuing the invite in the first place.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the G20 meeting in Bali next week in place of President Vladimir Putin (YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty)
In an interview with the Financial Times, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, said Russia was welcome at the summit, which he feared would be overshadowed by a “very worrying” rise in international tensions.
“The G20 is not meant to be a political forum. It’s meant to be about economics and development,” he was quoted as saying.
Moscow’s embassy in Indonesia told the AFP news agency Putin’s program was “still being worked out” and the Russian leader could participate in the two-day summit that starts on September 15 virtually.
Widodo earlier this week revealed he had a “strong impression” Putin would skip the gathering, as Breitbart News reported.
The G20 summit, which brings together the leaders of 19 countries and the European Union, is expected to be dominated by the fallout of the Ukraine war, which has fuelled global shortages of food and fuel.
At the United Nations General Assembly last month, 16 members of the G20 backed a resolution condemning Moscow’s attempted annexation of four regions of eastern Ukraine. G20 members China, India and South Africa abstained in the vote, while the European Union is not represented at the UN body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has also been invited to the summit, previously said he would not attend if Putin joined the gathering.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Joe Biden are among the world leaders expected to travel to the gathering.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.