President Joko Widodo has concluded his trips to Ukraine and Russia in a peace-building mission, but conceded that we are far from accomplishing that target.
The president first met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on June 29, following that up with a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 30.
Jokowi, the first Asian leader to undertake such a peace-building mission, pledged to be a bridge of communications between Zelenskiy and Putin moving forward.
“The Indonesian constitution mandates our contribution towards the realization of world peace. It’s in this context that I visited Kyiv and Moscow,” Jokowi wrote in the tweet after his meeting with Putin.
“The situation right now is still very difficult, but it’s important to keep striving for a resolution towards peace and to keep channels of dialog open.”
With both leaders, Jokowi expressed humanitarian concerns brought about by the invasion, as well as setbacks to the global food and energy supply.
Jokowi meeting both Zelenskiy and Putin holds special significance this year, with Indonesia being the chair of the G20 intergovernmental forum. The country found itself between a rock and a hard place when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, with western G20 members threatening to boycott the summit in Bali at the end of the year if Putin weren’t excluded from the event.
Russian officials have confirmed on numerous occasions that Putin will attend the G20 summit.
Indonesia, stressing its commitment to peace-building, has also extended an invitation to non-G20 member Ukraine, to which Zelenskiy said he will attend virtually.
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