While President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has offered to become a peace mediator between warring Ukraine and Russia,  Indonesia might have a more limited role for actual peace to occur, experts say.

The President met with Ukraine’s Volodymir Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in his mission to seek an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, which has caused food shortages and surging commodity prices around the world.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) international relations researcher Waffaa Kharisma said that compared to other figures who had been trying to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, Indonesia was in a relatively better position because of its neutral stance on the war in Ukraine. However, it also meant that Indonesia had few bargaining chips to influence the course of the war.

While Indonesia had established bilateral ties with Ukraine and Russia, they were not the strongest for Indonesia, Waffaa said. For a mediator to succeed, it needs to have a strong relationship with the parties involved to succeed, he underlined.

“Ukraine and Russia do not distrust Indonesia as we don’t have a veiled interest in them,” Waffaa said in a discussion on Friday. “But the sticking points between Ukraine and Russia were out of Indonesia’s control, such as Ukraine's wish for security assurance or Russia’s wish for Crimea to be recognized as a part of Russia.”

After attending the Group of Seven Summit at Schloss Elmau in Germany’s Bavarian Alps on Monday, Jokowi continued his diplomatic tour to Ukraine, being the first Asian leader to visit the country during the ongoing war.

In Kyiv, he offered to relay Zelensky's message to Putin; in Moscow, he offered to be a bridge between the two.

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