Jokowi Recalls Meeting with Putin in Kremlin

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo recalled his 2.5-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Kremlin, Moscow, back on June 30, 2022. He met Putin after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for 1.5 hours the day before.

The talks with the two leaders were not easy, he claimed. In a conversation with Putin, the former Jakarta governor said he was forced to change the topics of his peace mission. Preparing a space for dialogue for the two countries in conflict was not less difficult as well.

“I just talked about the food crisis, and we finally meet there,” he said at the Workshop of 100 Indonesian Economists on Wednesday, September 7, 2022.

He met the two leaders after the Russia-Ukrainian war erupted on February 24, 2022. The war disrupted the global supply of wheat as Ukraine could not make a shipment because of the Russian blockade of the Black Sea Port.

Jokowi thus conveyed the issue to Putin who then guaranteed that there would be no problem. He also asked whether or not this could be forwarded to the public via an official statement, but Putin did not allow it.

“After that, maybe two or three weeks later, a ship starts leaving Odesa to Istanbul (Turkey),” he added.

In the end, these talks with Zelensky and Putin led Jokowi to conclude that the war would still go on for a long time.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO

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