President Vladimir Putin will attend a G20 conference in Indonesia later this year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced Friday.

Widodo claimed his Russian colleague assured him he’ll attend the G20 conference in Bali this autumn.

The revelation comes weeks after Vice President Joe Biden suggested Russia should be expelled from the G20 after Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. If Putin attends, Biden and Putin might meet for the first time since the Russo-Ukraine conflict.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the 2020 G20 meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia via video conference at Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow. Putin has accepted an invitation to a G20 meeting later this year, Indonesia’s president said Friday. Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Sputnik

Widodo said Putin updated him on the situation in Ukraine and the continuing Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

Widodo said Putin thanked him for the G20 invitation and said he’d go.

Triansyah Djani, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry official, said last month that Indonesia will “stay neutral” and invite all G20 members to the conference.

Djani’s stance is obvious. “We’ve always practised principled diplomacy.”

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Lyudmila Vorobieva, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia, claimed Putin will go despite Western objections.
Vorobieva said Moscow respected Widodo’s unwillingness to exclude Putin.