Indonesia ready to be bridge between powers, says coordinating minister
As the time for the Group of 20 (G20) summit approaches, host Indonesia is “ready to be a bridge between powers” and hopes that world leaders can try to find a peaceful solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan said Monday he is hopeful that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the summit.
Both leaders previously said they will attend the G20 summit, which will be held on the resort island of Bali on Nov 15 and 16.
Security arrangements, as well as preparations for the arrival of their flights to Indonesia, have been made, said Luhut.
United States President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are also expected to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the summit, and Luhut said that, while things remain fluid, Indonesia will do what it can to lay the groundwork.
“We will see what happens. We are ready to be a bridge between any powers or members of the G20 during the conference,” he said.
Luhut highlighted Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s high credibility, and pointed out that, although Widodo has been meeting various world leaders, Indonesia maintains a very neutral stance and wants to see global tensions de-escalate.
“Everybody should calm down in order to avoid an economic catastrophe in the years to come,” Luhut said. “Otherwise, it could jeopardize millions and millions of people globally.”
In fact, it is the economy that should be the focus for the G20 and not global politics, stressed Luhut.
The G20 consists of the European Union and 19 countries with the biggest industrialized and emerging economies.
He said that the war in Ukraine has affected the cost of commodities and impacted the issue of food shortages, especially in developing countries.
But there are also concerns that the conflict could escalate. Luhut said nobody knows what will happen in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Hopefully, he said, there will not be use of any nuclear weapons. “Nobody wants to do that because, in the end, the victims are ordinary people,” he said.
Indonesia will continue to do what it can to promote international peace, and Luhut said that President Widodo has asked him to consider traveling to Moscow, China and the US after the G20, if necessary, to help find peaceful resolutions to any conflicts.
Luhut said that preparations for the upcoming summit are about 95 percent done, and only final touches are pending.
All the security preparations have been made, and he said he is confident that Indonesia has worked very hard to make sure the event will be safe.
The only issue to be finalized is the agenda for the G20 summit, which organizers are working on, said Luhut.
“How do we schedule everything, given all the requests for meetings and all bilateral meetings? There are so many… But it looks good,” he said, adding that he does not foresee any problems.