THE upcoming G20 summit could play host to a showdown between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin as the Russian tyrant is expected to attend with Xi Jinping.
It comes amid fears Putin and China‘s president are plotting World War Three with the West as they plan huge joint war games, with thousands of Chinese troops set to pour into Russia.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has now insisted both Putin and Xi will attend the summit in November, set to be hosted in Bali.
It’s feared the pair may use it as a chance to stage a joint show of defiance against the West.
Widodo told Bloomberg: “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come.”
The White House has said that Ukrainian President Zelensky should also attend if Putin does – meaning the leaders could come face-to-face for the first time since the Russian tyrant invaded.
Its National Security Council said: “As President Biden has said publicly himself, he does not think President Putin should attend the G20 as he wages his war against Ukraine.”
Host Indonesia has invited Zelensky to attend the Bali summit
As head of the G20 this year, Indonesia has faced pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin over his country’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Widodo has attempted to position himself as a mediator between the warring nations.
In recent months, he has travelled to meet both presidents to call for an end to the war.
This week, Jokowi said both countries have accepted Indonesia as a “bridge of peace”.
Putin has no moral right to attend : UK
But Britain’s foreign ministry has slammed the idea of Putin attending, saying he has “no moral right” as the war rages on.
A spokesman said: “Russia has no moral right to sit at the G20 while its aggression in Ukraine persists.
“We welcome Indonesia’s efforts to ensure that the impacts of Russia’s war are considered in G20 meetings, as well as indications that Ukraine may be represented by President Zelensky at the G20 Leaders Summit.”
Putin missed out on the G7 summit in July as Russia was expelled from the alliance in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea.
It comes as China is set to send thousands of troops into Russia to stage huge war games as tensions with other countries hit boiling point.
Both countries have made repeated chilling threats to blast the UK and US as tensions simmer over Ukraine and Taiwan.
Just this month, China extended its largest-ever exercises around Taiwan beyond the four days originally scheduled in retaliation over Nancy Pelosi’s visit – including rehearsing sinking US submarines.
The country had also bragged about its ability to sink US aircraft carriers using hypersonic missiles.
Meanwhile, Russia has issued a string of threats to the West during its invasion of Ukraine.
One of Putin’s cronies previously boasted Moscow’s Satan-2 nuke can demolish “half of the US coast”.
In another warning, Russian state TV said Britain could be bombed “back to the stone age” in ten minutes using Putin’s “unstoppable” 7,000mph hypersonic nuke missiles.
THE SUN
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