White House told G20 host Russia shouldn't be allowed to participate

Jen Psaki, White House press secretary

© APA | Jen Psaki, White House press secretary

# 29 April 2022 22:59 (UTC +04:00)

The White House conveyed privately to Indonesia that Russia should not be allowed to participate in this year’s G20 summit, though the country’s president announced Friday that President Vladimir Putin had accepted an invitation to attend, APA reports citing CNN.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted the summit was still six months away, and did not provide an update on whether President Biden would also participate. But she said his views were clear that Russia shouldn’t be there.

“The President has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20,” she said.

The White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, she said.

Still, in a statement confirming Russia’s acceptance of the invite, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, “Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy.”

Indonesia has also extended an invitation to Ukraine to participate as a guest, a step Psaki said the US welcomed, but she said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

“It is six months away. So we don't know how to predict, we can't predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding, “We’ve conveyed our view that we don't think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.”

Psaki said there were no indications Russia was willing to engage in serious diplomacy.

“There's a lot that could happen between now and then, but we certainly haven't seen an indication to date of Russia's plan to participate in diplomatic talks constructively,” she said. “Our hope certainly is that will change because obviously diplomatic talks and conversations is the way to bring an end to this conflict and President Putin could end this tomorrow, could end this right now.”

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