Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia’s Putin to attend G20 summit in Indonesia, Jokowi says

The pair’s presence at the meeting would set up a showdown with the US and its allies who have called for Moscow to be removed from the G20 for invading Ukraine

Jokowi said US-China tensions over Taiwan is ‘worrying’ but dismissed concerns military posturing could spill over into the South China Sea

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Chinese President Xi Jinping with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (left) in Beijing. File photo: Sputnik/AP

Published: 8:37am, 19 Aug 2022Updated: 1:47pm, 19 Aug 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are both planning to attend a Group of 20 summit in the resort island of Bali later this year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said.

“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as the president is known, said in an interview on Thursday. It was the first time the leader of the world’s fourth-most populous nation confirmed both of them were planning to show up at the November summit.

The presence of Xi and Putin at the meeting would set up a showdown with US President Joe Biden and other democratic leaders, all of whom are set to meet in person for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The attack, which came soon after Putin and Xi declared a “no limits” partnership, has left the G20 divided over whether to place sanctions on Russia.

China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on travel plans for Xi, who hasn’t travelled abroad since the start of the pandemic. A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment but another official familiar with the situation confirmed Putin currently plans to attend the meeting in person.