However, no decision has yet been made to boycott the leaders’ summit, which is six months away. Officials said there is unlikely to be a decision in the short term as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.
“The President has publicly expressed his opposition to President Putin’s participation in the G20,” spokesman Jen Psaki said on Friday.
She said it was too early to tell what the summit would look like.
“It’s six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point what that’s going to be like,” she said, adding, “We’ve expressed our view that we don’t think they should either publicly.” and be a part of it privately.”
The White House is realistic that the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks as the decision would likely require consensus and China has made clear it does not support such a move. This is a different scenario than Russia’s expulsion from the G8 following the annexation of Crimea.
Psaki said the White House understands that Indonesia invited Putin to attend ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, however, the country’s president stressed the unity among member countries.
“Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let a split happen. Peace and stability are the keys to global economic recovery and development,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement by the Indonesian cabinet on Friday, confirming that Putin accepted his invitation to attend.
Vidodo also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week, who tweeted that he was “grateful” for the invitation but did not say if he would attend the summit.
Widodo spoke in separate phone calls this week with Putin and Zelenskyy, during which he informed the Russian president of the importance of the “immediate” end to the war in Ukraine and Indonesia’s desire to help bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the statement said .
Widodo said he informed Zelensky of Indonesia’s willingness to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but not military aid, which he says is prohibited by Indonesia’s constitution and its foreign policy principles.
The confirmation of Putin’s attendance sets the stage for a potentially complicated summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, due to begin in early November. White House officials have considered a number of different scenarios, including potentially sending a lower-level delegation or attending remotely. However, Biden’s attendance in person is still considered the most likely outcome, even though officials say Putin is also in attendance.
Psaki said there were no signs that Russia was ready to engage in serious diplomacy.
“A lot could happen before then, but we certainly haven’t seen any indication that Russia plans to engage constructively in diplomatic talks,” she said. “Our hope is certainly that that will change because obviously diplomatic talks and talks are the way to end this conflict and President Putin could end this tomorrow, could end this right now.”
Earlier this month, finance ministers from several nations, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, walked out of a closed G20 meeting in Washington as the Russian delegate began his prepared remarks, a demonstration of protest against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Before the meeting, US officials said Yellen would not attend certain sessions of the meeting that Russia attended. And Biden said during an early NATO summit in March he would support Russia’s exit from the G20.
Shortly thereafter, Biden said Ukraine should be invited to participate. He said he raised the matter during his meetings with other leaders.
CNN’s Jorge Engels contributed to this report.