Chinese and Russian leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian President Joko Widodo told Bloomberg News on Thursday.
“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Jokowi, as he is popularly known, told the news agency.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment while Indonesia presidential palace officials also did not respond.
Indonesia is chairing the Group of 20 major economies and has faced pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin over his country's invasion on Ukraine, which his government calls a "special military operation".
Jokowi has sought to position himself as mediator between the warring countries, and has travelled to meet both Ukraine's and Russia's presidents. This week, Jokowi said both countries have accepted Indonesia as a "bridge of peace".
Leaders of major countries, including US President Joe Biden, are set to meet in Indonesia's resort island of Bali in November. Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Foreign ministers from European countries, Australia and Britain on Friday jointly condemned Israel's plans to construct a settlement east of Jerusalem.
Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lauded his country's "heroic" troops who fought for Russia in the war against Ukraine, in a ceremony where he decorated returning soldiers and consoled children of the bereaved with hugs, state media said on Friday.
Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the country during a devastating 2019-2024 economic crisis, was arrested and appeared in court on Friday over allegations he misused state funds while in office, police said.
The Arab League has strongly condemned the settlement plan approved by the Israeli government in the area known as E1 east of Jerusalem, stressing that it threatens the territorial continuity of Palestine.