inp.polri.go.id - President of the Republic of Indonesia Ir. H. Joko Widodo claimed that the President of China, Xi Jinping, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, would attend the G20 summit in Bali in November.
"Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come," Jokowi said in an interview with Bloomberg's chief editor, John Micklethwait, as quoted by Reuters, on Thursday (18/08/2022).
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to Bloomberg's request for confirmation. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on this news, but another official familiar with the issue confirmed that Putin plans to attend the G20 summit in person.
This is the first time Jokowi has confirmed the planned presence of Xi and Putin at the meeting. This news comes after Putin and Jokowi spoke by telephone on Thursday.
"President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo @jokowi held a telephone conversation," the Russian Embassy in Jakarta wrote on Twitter.
In the thread on Twitter, the Russian embassy also wrote, "In connection with Indonesia's G20 presidency, preparations for the summit in Bali in November were also mentioned."
Leaders of the G20 countries are scheduled to meet at the G20 summit in November, the first time since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Relations between China and Russia with the United States and several Western countries have heated up after Putin began his invasion of Ukraine in February.
This invasion made Russia bombarded with international sanctions, especially from the US and Washington's allies. In addition, the visit of the Chair of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan some time ago also made relations between Washington and Beijing tense.
China considers the visit a threat to its country's sovereignty. They responded to the visit by holding massive military exercises around Taiwan.