Seeing the scale of the impact and the global effects it has caused, the crisis in Ukraine has spread everywhere, including to Indonesia’s presidency of the G20 this year.
By
Kompas Team
·3 minutes read
AFP/SERGEY BOBOK
A Ukrainian frontier guard checks documents of people crossing the check point at Ukrainian-Russian border, some 40 km from the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on February 16, 2022.
When it took over the presidency of the Group of 20, Indonesia was aware of the rivalry between the big countries. The rivalry is now much tougher. High-level efforts are needed to minimize the impact on the G20.
When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo received the baton of chairmanship at the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, 31 October 2021, the government was aware of the challenges ahead; not only the complexity of the world's recovery efforts from the Covid-19 pandemic but also the rivalry between major world powers. Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi in November 2021 said the rivalry deepened.
However, at that time, there was an air of optimism that the rivalry could be managed to encourage cooperation. Until early February, the situation appeared to be under control despite the already existing tensions between Russian and Western countries in Europe, marked by the mobilization of troops and armaments by both sides. Then, on 24 February 2022, it erupted on the first day Russia launched a military offensive — in Russian President Vladimir Putin's words “special military operations” — on Ukraine.
A number of international observers called the moment a “critical turning point” in world history. Some see it as a marker of “post-end of the Cold War”. Sort of like the end of the Cold War. “The end of the end of history”, wrote Francis Fukuyama, citing the title of his famous book, in the Financial Times.
The unbridled effect of the Ukrainian crisis even spread to Jakarta, before the Russian attack, at the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, on 17-18 February, when some delegates wanted to include the issue of Ukraine in a joint communique.
Seeing the scale of the impact and the global effects it has caused, the crisis in Ukraine has spread everywhere, including to Indonesia’s presidency of the G20 this year. The unbridled effect of the Ukrainian crisis even spread to Jakarta, before the Russian attack, at the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, on 17-18 February, when some delegates wanted to include the issue of Ukraine in a joint communique.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
Indonesian President Joko Widodo and German outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel talk before a meeting about the global supply chain, during the G20 Summit at the Roma Convention Center La Nuvola on October 31, 2021, in Rome, Italy.
As reported in this daily newspaper, the affairs in organizing the G20 are starting to be complicated, sensitive and political. Indonesia is in the tug-of-war between the interests of the conflicting countries. The G20 consists of 19 world powers, including those currently in conflict regarding the Ukraine issue, namely Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and China, plus the European Union.
There are mutual efforts of negating each other at the G20. If one side is invited, the other side will not come.
In Jakarta, the air of rivalry is felt through a war of statements made by representatives of the conflicting countries. A lecturer in international relations at Gadjah Mada University, Muhadi Sugiono, called their rivalry a "conflict of ideology". There are mutual efforts of negating each other at the G20. If one side is invited, the other side will not come.
There must be high-level efforts to minimize the effects of the Ukraine crisis on the G20. At the level of diplomacy, it is time to handle it at the level of the head of state. This has been started with President Jokowi’s communication with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday (16/3/2022). It is necessary to continue with direct communication with other G20 leaders, especially countries in conflict in Ukraine, to explain Indonesia's position.
With a higher level of complexity, this is the time to manage that rivalry to become an impetus for cooperation. If successful, Indonesia’s chairmanship of the G20 will be inscribed in history with gold ink.
