Xi Jinping, Putin to attend G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia

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Xi Jinping, Putin to attend G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia

An adviser to the Indonesian president said that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will be in attendance at the G 20 summit on the resort island of Bali this November.

Andi Widjajanto, an unofficial adviser to President Joko Jokowi Widodo, told Reuters that Chinese and Russian leaders would be attending.

Widodo told Bloomberg News that both leaders had given him their assurances. Indonesian presidential officials didn't respond to requests for confirmation of the report.

A Kremlin spokeswoman declined to say anything to Bloomberg, but another official familiar with the situation told the news agency Putin planned to attend.

It would be a significant trip because Xi would be the first time outside China since January 2020 when he visited Myanmar. Since then, Xi has only made a trip outside the Chinese mainland on June 30, visiting Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover from British control.

China has a zero-Covid policy that has shut its borders to international travel.

Xi is expected to secure a third leadership term during the congress of the ruling Communist party in northern autumn, most likely before he would head to Bali for the mid-November G 20 gathering.

The last two took place in late October and early November, but there were no dates announced for the party congress.

Chinese officials are planning to hold a November meeting between Xi and Joe Biden in south-east Asia. The US president is expected to attend the G 20 summit in Bali.

As head of the G 20 this year, Indonesia has been under pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Indonesia has invited Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to attend.

Widodo has tried to position himself as mediator, and has traveled to both the Ukrainian and Russian presidents in recent months to call for an end to the war and find ways to deal with the global food crisis.

Widodo said this week both countries accepted Indonesia as a bridge of peace.