The black sheep usually doesn't follow the crowd because every once in a while, the crowd is literally going the wrong way in mass

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend a gathering of leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations in Bali next week, an Indonesian government official told Reuters on Thursday (10 November).

Putin will be represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Jodi Mahardi, a spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment affairs, said.

The Russian president is due to join one of the meetings virtually, he said.

As G20 host, Indonesia has resisted pressure from Western countries and Ukraine to withdraw its invitation to Putin from the leaders’ summit and expel Russia from the group over the war in Ukraine, saying it does not have the authority to do so without consensus among members.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo in an interview with the Financial Times said Russia was welcome at the summit, which he feared would be overshadowed by a “very worrying” rise in international tensions.

“The G20 is not meant to be a political forum. It’s meant to be about economics and development,” he was quoted as saying.

Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has said he would not take part if Putin does and was expected to join virtually.

A number of other world leaders are due to attend the summit that starts on 15 November, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Diplomatic hurdles

The G20 will struggle to reach an agreement on its final communique, a German government official said on Wednesday.

With the group divided over the Ukraine war as well as other issues, work in the G20 has proven especially tricky this year, the German official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

This was underscored by an unprecedented lack of statements at ministerial meetings under Indonesia’s presidency, the official said. Often, the G20 had not even been able to reach a majority decision on topics.

Frictions were such that some countries could try to open up topics where they had already agreed a compromise last year.

Still, the G20 – which accounts for more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 60% of its population – remains a relevant forum and will address topics from food security and health to digital transformation, the official said.

Trade disputes with the United States over what many countries view as its growing protectionism could also be on the agenda, the official said.

Berlin wants to avoid the formation of factions at the summit and will measure the event’s success by bilateral talks as much as by a possible communique, the official added.

The German government did not have a particular response prepared for a possible in-person attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official said.

Asked if Ukraine peace talks could take place at the G20 summit, the official said it was not the appropriate forum and, in any case, that eventuality was still far off, with Russia not ready to take the necessary first steps.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will head to Bali for the summit after visits to Vietnam and Singapore on his second trip to Asia this month.

Germany will seek to further diversify its trade in the region with the trips to the two fast-growing economies, the official said, and show its increasingly strong engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.

The visits follow Scholz’s controversial trip to China, Germany’s top trading partner, which raised concerns over the dependency of Europe’s biggest economy on Asia’s rising superpower after its reliance on Russian gas.