President of Russia Vladimir Putin and its Chinese equivalent Xi Jinping will attend its meeting G20 in November, Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, which chairs the world’s largest economic forum, said in an interview published today.

“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin also told me that he would come,” Widodo said in an interview with Bloomberg.

US President Joe Biden will also attend the G20 meeting, while Washington’s relations with Moscow and Beijing are deteriorating due to the war in Ukraine and tensions over Taiwan.

There was no certainty that Putin and Xi would go to Bali to participate in the talks. Moscow has been placed on lockdown following Western sanctions for invading Ukraine, and the Chinese president has cut foreign travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, Kremlin officials explained that Putin accepted Mr Widodo’s offer on the condition that his health due to the pandemic would allow him to travel.

The West has pressured Jakarta to exclude Putin from the summit after he announced in April that he had invited him.

Indonesia takes a neutral position regarding the war in Ukraine. Widodo moved to both Kyiv and Moscow since the beginning of the year.

Indonesia also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit. Zelensky, whose country is not part of the G20, said he would attend the meeting online.

^{According to REUTERS, AFP, DPA, APE-MPE.}