G20 host Indonesia calls on Zelenskyy, Putin to forge peace through talks

Indonesia has turned down a request for arms from Ukraine's leader and urged him and his Russian counterpart to end the Ukraine conflict.

"I expressed my hope that the war can soon be ended, and peaceful solutions can be forged through negotiations," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday.

In an online statement, the president added that he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin by phone this week.

Indonesia is currently chairing the Group of 20 (G20) major economies and has invited both Zelenskyy and Putin to the leaders' summit in November.

Jokowi, as the Indonesian president is commonly known, also said he declined Zelenskyy's request for weapons due to the Southeast Asian country's foreign policy, which tries to steer a path of strategic neutrality.

He said Indonesia was ready to send humanitarian aid.

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'Don't let there be fractures'

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, Indonesia has faced fierce pressure from Western countries — including the United States, Britain and Canada — to bar Russia from the summit.

But Jakarta has insisted that, as the host, it must remain impartial, while US President Joe Biden had suggested Ukraine could take part.

"Indonesia wants to unite the G20, don't let there be fractures," Jokowi said.

Ukraine is not a member of the G20, but chairs of the grouping have previously invited guest countries.

Zelenskyy's attendance at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali would "depend mainly on the situation in the battlefield", Vysotskyi Taras, a senior Ukrainian government official, said on Thursday.

While Jokowi said Putin intended to attend, a Kremlin spokesperson last week said he had yet to confirm.

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