G20 summit host dogged by Russia rancour

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met on Monday for long-awaited talks that come as relations between their countries are at their lowest in decades, marred by disagreements over a host of issues from Taiwan to trade.

The two, holding their first inperson talks since Biden became president, met on the Indonesian island of Bali ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit on Tuesday that is set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Biden and Xi shook hands in front of a row of Chinese and US flags as they met at the luxury hotel Mulia on Nusa Dua bay in Bali.

They are expected to discuss Taiwan, Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, issues that will also loom over the G20 that is being held without Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance.

Xi and Putin have grown increasingly close in recent years, bound by their shared distrust of the West, and reaffirmed their partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

But China has been careful not to provide any direct material support that could trigger Western sanctions against it.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Putin at the G20 summit - the first since Russia invaded Ukraine in February - after the Kremlin said Putin was too busy to attend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he would address the G20 gathering by videolink on Tuesday.

The G20 — which includes countries ranging from Brazil to India and Germany, accounts for more than 80% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 60% of its population — will take place under very different circumstances than those host Indonesia envisioned when it began planning the summit last year.

Indonesia, the world’s fourthmost populous country and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, assumed the chair of the G20 in December with plans to focus on recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and boosting the interests of developing nations.

Instead, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February threw the word into turmoil and threw Indonesia’s preparations for the summit out of kilter, forcing it into a high-stakes struggle to manage divergent demands and ensure the summit on the island of Bali takes place.

“Just keeping the meeting together is already a big achievement,” said Jose Rizal, executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of its southern neighbour sparked calls by some Western leaders for a boycott of the G20 summit and for the withdrawal of Putin’s invitation.

But Indonesia, closely associated from the 1950s with the formation of the non-aligned movement, has instead focused on its “bebas dan aktif“, or “free and active” foreign policy, a position of non-alignment born out of the Cold War, to try to keep the peace amid the global fractures, analysts say.

Indonesia has held its ground on Russia, refusing to withdraw Putin’s invitation, and also rejecting what Indonesian sources say has been pressure from G7 countries to condemn Russia at the summit this week.

President Joko Widodo, who has not previously focused on international affairs, has been particularly focused on food and energy insecurity that has resulted from the war in Ukraine, in no small part because Indonesia is one of the world’s largest importers of wheat.