JAKARTA, Indonesia — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend next week’s Group of 20 summit in Indonesia to avoid a possible confrontation with the United States and its allies over its war in Ukraine, an Indonesian government official said Thursday.
US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders are expected to attend a two-day summit in Bali starting on November 15. The summit was supposed to be the first time since Russia that Biden and Putin had met. invaded Ukraine in February.
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, head of the support service for G-20 events, told reporters in Denpasar, Indonesia, that the Russian delegation will be headed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“The Indonesian government respects the decision of the Russian government, which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a very friendly telephone conversation,” said Panjaitan, who is also the Coordinating Minister of Maritime Transport and Investment.
Biden ruled out meeting Putin if he attended the summit and said the only conversation he would have with the Russian leader would be to discuss a deal to release Americans imprisoned in Russia.
Biden administration officials said they coordinated with global counterparts to isolate Putin if he chose to participate either in person or virtually. They discussed boycotts or other forms of condemnation.
