Indonesian President Joko Widodo Positions Himself As Rus/Ukr Mediator

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is in Russia today meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a European trip by the G20 host to provide a mediation option to the war in Ukraine.

• Widodo tweeted a short time ago: "Sunny weather greeted the arrival of the First Lady and I in Moscow..."
• Yesterday, Widodo was in Kyiv, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accepted an invitation to attend November's G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Widodo also, reportedly, offered to convey a message from Zelensky to Putin.
• Zelensky thanked Widodo for the personal invitation, but cautioned that his G20 attendance was contingent on “the composition of participants.”
• Widodo is expected to push Putin on ceasefire plans and food exports from Ukraine. Widodo's new self-appointed mediator role comes as the West increasingly accuses the "global South" of apathy towards the war in Ukraine.
• The G20 summit is scheduled to take place in Bali in November but there remains speculation over whether Western countries will choose to boycott in protest of Russian involvement.
• Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a boycott would hand a propaganda victory to the Kremlin and said: “I would be absolutely amazed if Putin goes in person. He’s a pariah figure. He hasn’t been outside Russia for more than two years."
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said earlier this week that he is still weighing up a boycott: “In the end, we will have to make the decision shortly before the departure..."
• EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke opposing a boycott: “In my opinion, G20 is too important, also for the developing countries, the emerging countries, that we should let this body be broken by Putin.”