Indonesian President Joko Widodo and G20 Chairman said they would leave for Europe on Sunday to visit Russia and Ukraine to meet with national leaders and encourage peace talks.
Widdo will leave for Germany from June 26th to 27th to attend the G7 Summit as a guest, then head to Kieu, the capital of Ukraine, to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The mission is to ask President Zelensky to hold a dialogue forum for peace and build peace as he must stop the war,” he said at a press conference in Jakarta.
The two leaders will also discuss food supply chains that “need to be rejuvenated,” Widdo said. From Kieu, Widdo will visit Moscow to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The visit to Moscow is scheduled for June 30, Indonesian officials said earlier.
“With the same mission, I have a dialogue with President Putin and ask him to ceasefire immediately and stop the war,” he said. At the beginning of April, Widdo called Zelensky and announced that he had invited him to attend the G20 Summit in Bali in November 2022 as a guest.
Indonesia is replacing the G20 this year and is being pressured by Western nations, especially the United States, to exclude Russia from the conference.
However, Mr Widdo said he did not cancel his invitation to Russia and that Putin had expressed his intention to attend the November summit.
Indonesia, like most major emerging economies, has sought to maintain a neutral position and sought peaceful resolution of conflicts over months.
Widdo refused to send weapons to Ukraine in response to a request from Zelensky and provided humanitarian aid instead.
After finishing his visit to Europe, Widdo heads to the United Arab Emirates before returning to Indonesia.
