Meet Putin at Bali G20 or skip it? Biden stuck between a rock and a hard place
Even if the US president avoids handshake with the Russian leader whom he has sought to isolate, the pair would be sharing the stage during the meetings and ceremonies
Biden must also confront the fact that nations like Indonesia are refusing to pick sides over the Ukraine invasion despite his demand that they do s
US President Joe Biden is facing a difficult choice after Indonesia’s announcement that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will attend this year’s Group of 20 summit: join an event with two leaders he has sought to isolate, or skip the gathering and forgo a chance to shape its outcome. As he prepares for the November gathering, Biden must confront the fact that nations like Indonesia are refusing to pick sides over the Ukraine invasion despite his demand that they do so, and have faulted the US as much as China over increased tension between Washington and Beijing.
Either way, it was news Biden didn’t want to hear when Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Thursday that Putin and Xi would likely attend the gathering in Bali. That opens up the possibility of a direct encounter between Putin and Biden. Even if they avoid a handshake, the pair would quite literally share the stage during the meetings, photo sessions and ceremonial events that mark such a gathering.
“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Widodo said. “What we want is for this region is to be stable, peaceful, so that we can build economic growth. And I think not only Indonesia – Asian countries also want the same thing.” With those remarks, Jokowi was all but rejecting Biden’s demand that the global community turn its back on Putin over his decision to invade Ukraine. Biden, who says Putin should be tried for war crimes, had lobbied for Russia to be removed from the G20 after the start of the invasion, and US officials had earlier pressured Indonesia to exclude Putin from the Bali summit.
But it’s become more clear that nations like Indonesia don’t want to go along with that plan, just as they’ve refused to halt economic trade with Russia. In the same vein, they’ve grown more queasy about the US tensions with China, pointing to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August visit to Taiwan as needlessly inflammatory.
“Biden is definitely going to go, and I think it’s a question of how confrontational he’s going to be,” said Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “Boycotting it is not an option. We know that the administration thinks that that would be giving the summit away to Putin.” The White House elected not to force the issue on Friday. In a statement, the National Security Council reiterated Biden’s belief that Putin should not attend the summit while he wages war on Ukraine. But if he does, the NSC said, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should also be allowed to participate. That language opened up the possibility that Zelensky could attend virtually rather than take part in person. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba did the same in July, addressing a meeting of G20 foreign ministers virtually.
“The bigger question is, if Zelensky were to speak at Bali, does that legitimise Putin’s presence there?Haring said, predicting he may choose to skip the event altogether.
Even backers of the Biden administration questioned whether his confrontational approach would be effective.
“I don’t think the president should just try to avoid them,” Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and CIA director under former president Barack Obama, said. “If we don’t want war with Russia or with China, ultimately, the only way it’s going to be resolved is through a willingness to dialogue with one another and see whether or not there isn’t an opportunity to try to improve our relationships,” Panetta said.