The G-20 Summit of the top 20 economies in the world will be held in Bali in November. Usually, these “summits” are little better than photo-ops for national leaders and business big-shots. The issues have all been ironed out before the summit, and there will be no surprises at all.
Maybe not this time.
Invited to this summit are Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — three men who probably wouldn’t want to be in the same room, much less the same country, as the others.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is the current chair of the G-20, and even though two of the leaders who will be sharing space at the summit are trying to annihilate one another, he thinks it would be best if the war ended sooner rather than later.
“I reiterated the importance of ending the war immediately,” he said. “I also emphasized that peaceful efforts should continue and Indonesia is ready to contribute to these peaceful efforts.”
Actually, the Pentagon is not on the same page as the White House on the issue of Putin attending the summit.
“He [Putin] has isolated Russia by his own actions and should continue to be isolated by the international community,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said during an appearance on CNN.
Kirby said he believes it’s “inappropriate” for the international community to “keep treating Russia as if things are normal, because [they’re] not,” referring to Putin’s decision on February 24 to invade Ukraine.
“Putin has isolated himself and he should still continue to suffer the consequences of his actions in Ukraine,” the spokesman said.
Kirby declined to comment on whether the Biden administration viewed inviting Putin to attend the G20 summit at the Indonesian resort island of Bali this fall as a “mistake.”
The ball is now in Biden’s court. He can agree with his Pentagon and refuse to attend, or he can insult our Indonesian ally by failing to make the summit a complete success, thus damaging his personal prestige.
Besides, if Biden doesn’t go, he’ll leave an open field for Russia and China.
“It is six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding: “We’ve conveyed our view that we don’t think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.”
The White House is realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision would likely require consensus and China has been clear it doesn’t support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.
Psaki said the White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet in a statement, the country’s President stressed unity among the member countries.
Biden will almost certainly go to the summit, but any meeting with Putin is off the table. It should be amusing to watch the two men try their hardest to avoid getting their picture taken where they’re even in the same zip code.