Indonesian President Joko Widodo will visit Moscow and Kyiv by the end of June and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky respectively, Xinhua quoted Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi as telling a press briefing on Wednesday.
Retno said that during the visits, Widodo will discuss the food crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The “special visits” would show that Indonesia, as the host country of Group of 20 (G20) Summit in November, was actively responding to the ongoing geopolitical issue.
Indonesia fully expects that Russia, one of G20 members, will attend the summit, while Ukraine was also invited for the meeting as a guest country.
“We fully understand that the situation now is very complicated, and all of the countries in the world know that. Thus, through the visits, the president wants to contribute to overcoming the food crisis that has been caused by the war and has impacted the poor countries. The president wants to push for the spirit of peace,” Retno said.
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She pointed out that President Widodo would be the first president from the Southeast Asia region to visit both countries since the conflict broke out in February this
year.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been going on since then, which has been widely reported to trigger a rise in global food and energy prices.
Before travelling to Moscow and Kyiv, Widodo will first attend the G7 Summit in Germany.
According to a report, Indonesian President and G20 chairman Joko Widodo will visit counterparts in Ukraine and Russia next week and press for a peaceful resolution to their conflict, his foreign minister said on Wednesday (22 June), the first such trip by an Asian leader.
The Ukraine war has overshadowed meetings of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies this year, with Indonesia struggling to unify its members while resisting pressure from Western states threatening to boycott a November leaders’ summit and pushing for Russia’s exclusion.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the visits by Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is known, to both Kyiv and Moscow would be conducted in a “not normal” situation.
“The president is showing compassion on the humanitarian crisis, will try to contribute to the food crisis caused by the war, and the impact felt on all countries, especially the developing and low-income ones,” she told a news conference.
“And he’ll keep pushing for the spirit of peace.”
The months-long fighting in the region began in February with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
The conflict has caused major disruption to supply chains, stoking a food and energy crisis that has seen inflation soar in many countries, some of which have imposed export curbs to ensure domestic supplies.
Jokowi will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, having previously invited both to attend the G20 summit on the island of Bali.
Retno did not elaborate on what Jokowi would raise at the talks, which would follow the G7 Summit in Germany and bilateral meetings with leaders of those countries and others.
Jokowi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further details.
The president would discuss food security issues at those meetings in Germany, noting the global importance of Russia and Ukraine in terms of natural gas, oil, wheat and barley, Retno said.
“The situation is very complex right now. The continued war will have an impact on humanity including food, energy, and financial crises,” she said, adding as G20 chairman Jokowi had spoken to leaders of the United Nations, Germany, Turkey recently.
“We’ve decided not to use a ‘megaphone diplomacy’ so that big benefits for the world can be achieved,” she added.
Indonesia has abstained in the United Nations during the 7 April vote of a resolution suspending Russia’s UN Human Rights Council membership.
