Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - After visiting Ukraine and Russia, Indonesia 's president expressed optimism for the reintegration of...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - After visiting Ukraine and Russia, Indonesia's president expressed optimism for the reintegration of the world's damaged food and fertiliser supply chains and offered to serve as a diplomatic intermediary between the two countries.
After a Thursday bilateral discussion in Moscow, President Joko Widodo and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke at a news conference. Widodo is the G20 president this year.
His journey came after a trip to Kyiv on Wednesday, where he had a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine.
"I highly value President Putin's prior promise to guarantee the security of supplies of food and fertiliser coming from both Russia and Ukraine. The news is positive "declared the president of Indonesia, often known as Jokowi.
For the benefit of humanity, I also support the UN's efforts to help Ukrainian and Russian food products rejoin the global food supply system.
Jokowi stated that he had encouraged G7 leaders to make sure that sanctions on Russia did not impair the supply of food and fertiliser during a meeting he attended in Germany this week.
Global trade has been severely disrupted by the conflict in Ukraine, with grain and wheat prices skyrocketing as a result of a blockade of Ukrainian seaports and restrictions on Russian goods including oil, gas, and fertiliser.
In a joint interview with Jokowi in Moscow, President Putin refuted claims that Russia was obstructing grain exports from Ukraine.
He declared, "No one is stopping them from clearing those mines and we guarantee the safety of shipping grain out of there. The Ukrainian military has mined the approaches to their ports.
As G20 president this year, Jokowi has worked to mend the group's differences that the conflict in Ukraine and threats to boycott the summit if Russia participated exposed, as well as to use his nation's non-aligned status to call for peace.
On Thursday, he claimed to have communicated with Putin a message from Zelenskiy and stated that Indonesia was ready to serve as a "bridge of communication" between the two presidents. What was in the message was not said by him.
Separately, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi claimed that she had telephone conversations about the food crisis and potential strategies for reintegrating Russia and Ukraine into the world food supply with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others.
