Senior Indonesian officials have called on Western leaders to make concessions on how far to go in criticising Russia over the war in Ukraine, in a last-ditch effort to avoid the G20 summit in Bali ending without a joint declaration, Politico reported on November 13, 2022, citing diplomatic sources.
“Flexibility”
Diplomats from Japan, the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada and other countries were asked to show “flexibility” towards Russia, which will be represented at the summit by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, so that Moscow could sign on to a final statement, The Brussels Times reported, citing Politico.
President Joko Widodo would regard a successful declaration as a personal achievement, according to the report. Excluding Russia to create a “G19,” as happened with the G8 after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, did not appeal to him.
A fraught summit
Indonesia, which holds the G20 presidency, refused Western calls to withdraw Vladimir Putin’s invitation. Putin is skipping the summit on November 15-16, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address it by video. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi described it as possibly the most difficult G20 yet, with countries sometimes taking days to agree on a single word.
Indonesia voted at the UN General Assembly to condemn Russia’s claimed annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Sources
Image note: The featured image was generated by AI based on the content of this article. It is an illustration, not an actual photograph of the people, places or events described.
