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Jokowi set to play an unexpected global role as peacebroker
Having little interest in complicated diplomacies, Jokowi originally wanted to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not be damaging to the Group of 20 Summit and his G20 presidency.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (left) talks as Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier listens during their meeting at the Bogor Palace in West Java on June 16. (Reuters/Mast Irham)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is scheduled to unveil details of his upcoming trip to Germany, Russia and Ukraine after a meeting on Monday with Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, who has just returned from an outing overseas, including to Europe.
A top government official told me over the weekend that the President was set to announce his European agenda after chairing a limited Cabinet meeting. Next week, he will be on a United Nations mission to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to, among other things, allow Ukraine to export the globally needed wheat amid the ongoing war between the two countries. And of course, Jokowi will talk with Putin about the Group of 20 Summit Indonesia will host in Bali.
On June 14, Russian state news agency TASS quoted a Kremlin source as reporting about Jokowi’s visit to Moscow. Indonesian government officials privately confirmed the plan but declined to elaborate because President Jokowi himself will discuss the trip.
Preparations are being finalized by Indonesian and Russian authorities, including security arrangements when President Jokowi goes ahead with his plan to visit Ukraine.
President Jokowi may have never expected the UN to ask him to play a global role, especially in brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine. Having little interest in complicated diplomacies, Jokowi originally simply wanted to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not be damaging to the G20 Summit and his G20 presidency.
But with the UN, and perhaps the world, calling for his help, is his Russian trip just a coincidence or a perfectly planned scenario? Jokowi may also receive his “karma” because he has to do something he originally did not want to.
Again, knowing about his fondness to surprise the public with his unpredictable decisions, Jokowi may plan to fly from Moscow to Kyiv on board the presidential aircraft or a chartered Garuda plane to demonstrate his credibility as a global leader. It perhaps is similar to the visit of then-president Soeharto to war-torn Bosnia Herzegovina capital Sarajevo on March 13, 1995, only two days after a UN plane was shot down there.
