Russia at G20: Debate on Indonesia’s guest list hits crescendo with US, China, Australia remarks
- Indonesia says it will continue listening to ‘all views and suggestions’ as the issue continues to divide both Western leaders and domestic observers
- Inviting Russia will be a test of Indonesia’s ‘free and active’ foreign policy, says former political adviser Dewi Fortuna Anwar, but Jakarta could draw lessons from Asean’s engagement with Myanmar
A debate over G20 host Indonesia’s decision to invite Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the annual summit later this year has hit a crescendo, with Western leaders including US President Joe Biden inclined to expel Russia, and China insisting Moscow is an important member of the forum.
As this year’s G20 chair, Indonesia has found itself walking on eggshells as the global economic and development forum risks being weighed down by geopolitical rivalries exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Most of the West and its key Asian allies have condemned Moscow and imposed sanctions, while forum members China and India have not criticised President Vladimir Putin’s actions.
Indonesia, which supported a United Nations resolution to condemn the invasion, has sought to keep the crisis off the G20 agenda.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday said Jakarta would continue to listen to “all views and suggestions” from G20 members but reminded them that the forum was meant to be a “catalyst for the recovery of the pandemic and economic recovery”.
Biden last week said if Indonesia and other G20 members did not agree to expel Russia, then Ukraine should be allowed to attend meetings, while Australian leader Scott Morrison, who is up for election in the coming months, said the idea of sitting with Putin at the summit was “a step too far”. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron called for a boycott of the G20 summit in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a former vice-presidential adviser now with the Jakarta-based National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said divisions among G20 members on whether to invite Russia or discuss the Ukraine crisis was a “challenge” for Indonesia. It would be a test of its “free and active” foreign policy, she said.
“The pressure [that Indonesia is facing] is to make sure that the G20 process doesn’t get derailed because of the Ukrainian crisis. Indonesia has taken a position that it will invite all members of G20, including Russia. As a president, Indonesia has to bridge all of these differences and make sure that the G20 project itself can be saved,” Dewi said.