Indonesia assumes that Putin will not go to the G20 leaders' summit, despite being invited

MADRID, 7 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, has acknowledged this Monday for the first time that he does not believe that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will attend the G20 leaders' summit to be held next week in Bali, despite the fact that the Kremlin continues to remain unknown.

Widodo has a "strong feeling" that Putin will finally fall off the list of attendees, as he himself acknowledged in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper. The Indonesian president spoke last week by phone with Putin, in a round of contacts that also included the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky.

The Indonesian government said last week that 17 leaders had already confirmed attendance at what will be the first major G20 summit since the war in Ukraine broke out in February. The mere invitation to Putin had already made other leaders uncomfortable and Zelensky has made it clear that he will not participate in the forum if the Russian president is present.

Moscow has limited itself for now to confirming that it will attend, without clarifying the level of its delegation. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said on Monday that Putin's possible attendance or absence will be clarified this week, according to the TASS news agency.