TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Courageous mission
Commendation also goes to First Lady Iriana who stoically stood by the President, accompanying him on the trip to what is currently the most dangerous war zone in the world.
Change Size
W
e all should give credit to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for the initiative and indeed the courage he displayed on his trip to Kyiv.
Commendation also goes to First Lady Iriana who stoically stood by the President, accompanying him on the trip to what is currently the most dangerous war zone in the world. Iriana is only the second First Lady to visit war-torn Ukraine after United States President Joe Biden’s wife Jill made a surprise trip to the western part of Ukraine in May.
The photo of the Indonesian First Lady showing her hugging a distressed patient in a Kyiv hospital is surely one for the history books.
Such gestures and symbolism matter today because on the issue and substance, realistically there is only so much that President Jokowi could bring to the table to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end. After all, with his now trademark grim face and green army T-shirt, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also relies heavily on symbolism to deliver his message of Ukrainian resistance to the world.
And if the second objective of the President's trip to Kyiv and Moscow is to help secure release the shipment of cereals and grain now trapped in Odessa to the world, that is also a monumental challenge.
Indeed, the odds are heavily stacked against President Jokowi being able to secure some kind a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine right now.
If anything, war on the ground intensified in the days leading to President Jokowi's visit to Kyiv on Wednesday.
On Monday, a Russian attack on a shopping mall near Kyiv killed 16 civilians and wounded dozens more. On Thursday, while President Jokowi left Kyiv before setting off on the next leg of his journey to Moscow, Russian forces pressed on with their offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine in Lysychansk.
Jokowi himself appears to realize how complicated the situation is and only made the most modest of proposals during his meeting with Zelensky on Wednesday by offering to act as a courier between the two leaders.
He offered to deliver a message from Zelensky to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, although it was not immediately clear how the Ukrainian leader responded to the proposal or whether he had any message he wished to send to Putin, as Reuters has reported.
And of course, being the chair of the Group of 20 (G20), President Jokowi has a sincere interest in having everyone attend the November summit in Bali. He appeared to have earlier swayed some members of the Group of Seven (G7) into coming to Bali.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned against boycotting the G20 summit while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has indicated he will join the meeting despite Putin's presence.
Zelensky himself made a promise to Jokowi during their Wednesday meeting that he would attend the meeting depending on the security situation. It remains to be seen if Jokowi will get an assurance from Putin during the upcoming meeting in Moscow.
This sounds like a good enough result for Jokowi.
After all, leaders of major powers like France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Scholz have tried to broker peace in Ukraine and failed.
