'All Members Have Important Roles': Indonesian G20 Co-Sherpa Weighs in on Calls to Disinvite Russia

As Indonesia is preparing to host the Group of Twenty summit in November in Bali, the organisers aim to maintain a constructive atmosphere at the event and examine new challenges arising from the conflict in Ukraine.

Some Western representatives boycotted a G20 event in April because of Moscow’s participation, and it’s unclear what their plans for the group’s leaders’ summit in November are.

According to Edi Prio Pambudi, Indonesia’s deputy coordinating minister for economic affairs and the G20 co-Sherpa, the nation, which holds the forum’s presidency in 2022, is hoping that all members will keep the G20 intact, and that further discussions will be held in a peaceful and inclusive manner.

Sputnik: Indonesia has been putting a lot of effort into preparations for the G20. Some meetings have already been held. Other events, such as the Bali summit, are yet to happen. How important is the G20 presidency for your nation? What are the highlights of the Indonesia G20 that the world is going to see?

Edi Prio Pambudi: When we’re speaking of the benefits of G20, it's not only for Indonesia. So with the theme “Recover together, recover stronger”, we try to utilise our mandate to ensure the world’s economic recovery from the pandemic. But now the challenge is quite different. So this is the most important thing about the G20 presidency. The G20 does not only generate benefit for its members, but also for the world. The G20 is also part of the catalyst of the UN system.

It is clear that the G20 was born out of a global crisis, but now we are not only facing an economic and financial crisis - we also face another crisis from health, and now it's a challenge in the current situation. In the last three G20 presidencies, we noticed that we are in a pandemic situation, and we are also starting to see signs of improvement. Many countries are now moving into an endemic rather than a pandemic situation. But there is still big homework, especially how to distribute the vaccines equally around the world.

And, unfortunately, if I can frankly speak, another unexpected challenge arose from the war. So, currently, according to the observation of the Amnesty International institution and also the UN, the impact is leading to a deeper economic crisis, especially in the fields of food, energy, and finance. We cannot deny these facts. So as the G20 presidency, Indonesia continues to maintain the integrity of the G20, to promote dialogue as a humane way of overcoming the crisis. We also want to call upon all parties to share their views in a peaceful manner. I can say that the crisis facing the G20 no longer stems from economy and finance.

Edi Prio Pambudi, Indonesia’s deputy coordinating minister for economic affairs and G20 co-Sherpa, and Sputnik correspondent Denis Bolotsky

© Sputnik / Denis Tetyushin

Sputnik: You've mentioned the economic situation and the situation which comes out of the pandemic. Generally, most of the things that are usually discussed at the G20 are economic things. But there have also been attempts by some member states to switch to a political agenda instead of discussing purely economic issues. How important is it to maintain constructive relations within the group and to keep the focus on its declared goals before going into any politics?

Edi Prio Pambudi: Yes, it is not easy to separate politics from economics, because both are to each other. When we create public policies and also instruments for the public, and then the legitimacy of the G20 also requires a political approach and political will from the leaders and ministers. So, we seek a way to maintain the balance and integrity of the G20, and we also ask for adherence to universal values. And in this case it’s peace, because the main components of the G20 are: one is informality, number two is inclusiveness in dialogue.

All members sit in dialogue and share views – it all should be conducted in a peaceful manner. And I think our presidency has already done this. So this is the main requirement, and it has been going on for a long time, even in 2013 [at the G20 summit] in St. Petersburg – I was there. Russia, as the presidency, also successfully welcomed all guests in a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere. We have to maintain this atmosphere, and that way brilliant ideas that are useful for the world will be born. And this is what we ask: cooperation from all members to support our efforts, to keep the G20 intact – that’s the key.

Sputnik: Since you mentioned inclusiveness as one of the G20 principles, and Russia being part of the forum – there are currently attempts, or calls from the West to exclude the nation from discussions. Is it important that Russia stays in the dialogue?

Edi Prio Pambudi: Yes, we are aware that all members of G20 have very important roles. So, the power of dialogue in the G20 has given rise to – now it is more than 1,000 commitments, so far, and many of which have real benefits for the world, preventing crises and so on.

So, Indonesia has no intention of ignoring the participation rights of the G20 members. But we ask for understanding of our efforts, our high efforts to jointly create an inclusive atmosphere, so the G20 remains solid and all members make a real contribution to the world.

There are many challenges in the world, and we understand this, and they must be solved. So we must address them one by one. We asked about the root causes of the crisis, but now the most important thing is talk about how we find a solution to end the conflicts and go back to a peaceful situation. And we stand ready to support this.

Sputnik: The G20 meetings are being held in several locations around Indonesia. What are the benefits for local Indonesians?

Edi Prio Pambudi: We learn from our own experience, despite our size, population, religions, cultures, languages – it’s very diverse in Indonesia, from Aceh to Merauke [westernmost and easternmost locations in Indonesia – ed. Sputnik] and we manage to keep living in peace and tolerance. And we hold the G20 even in different Indonesian cities – it’s around 25 – and islands, to call upon the world to see the beauty of peace and diversity.

So no matter how heavy the conflict is, if we are committed to create a comfortable atmosphere for dialogues - as I mentioned, even in St. Petersburg, such as serving coffee and so on. So that's what we want to offer to all our guests of the G20. I believe and I have seen for myself how all communities and local government are very happy and excited to welcome the G20 guests, and they feel proud to be part of the world. So these are the values we want to display.

Sputnik: Indonesia has proposed to liberalise travel in the post-pandemic era through implementing common G20 standards in the area of health and vaccination data. Would your country benefit economically if these measures are adopted throughout the G20? How important is the tourism sector for Indonesia's economy at the moment, and how far is this area from recovery?

Edi Prio Pambudi: Yes, we believe that mobility will lead to economic recovery. Without mobility we cannot support economic activities. And without mobility due to the pandemic, we see the economy has been at a standstill or even getting worse. So for a long time, different standards in health protocols, in recognising vaccines and certificates, and so on, have made it difficult to reopen the economy around the world. So that's why we have to think about the tourism sector. This is the most affected sector due to the pandemic. And now we have to work to set up a new approach in this case. So even on the one side, we try to maintain the health protocols for mobility, and on the other one we have to help gradually to open tourism.

For Indonesia, the tourism sector contributes greatly to GDP and we want to bring it back to the right path. So the standardisation of health protocols has proven to be effective in recovering from the pandemic and then allowing the tourism sector to get back in operation.

Sputnik: How likely is it, that discussions at the summit will help to resolve global issues, and, if so, what are the mechanisms that could be implemented to achieve that?

Edi Prio Pambudi: Actually, Indonesia is not only carrying out the mandate of the G20 presidency now, the secretary-general of the UN also appointed Indonesia as one of the GCRG champions – Global Crisis Response Group, platforms formed by the UN secretary-general to mitigate the impact of the global crisis now. And the GCRG Sherpa is also from our office. So we have three Sherpas in my office – the G20 Sherpa, the GCRG Sherpa, and the Business Twenty Sherpa.

So we intend to synergise, actually, the discussions of the G20 substance with GCRG priority issues, especially in food, energy, and environment. And the G20 is a catalyst, as I said. So we must ensure the G20 support of the UN system and the effort to contain the deeper economic crisis. The approach we are taking in the G20 is by ensuring agreed concrete deliverables to make recovery stronger. Why? Because we already have a lot of concepts, a lot of narratives, and ideas, but we have to put them into concrete deliverables.

G20 Indonesia 2022 summit

© Sputnik / Denis Bolotsky

So we will recommend priorities that are aligned with the priorities issued at the GCRG with the G20, so therefore, we can synergise intensively. But actually, we all understand not only what the trigger of the crisis is, but more importantly how to solve the problem.

So we want to push the step into how to solve the problem and find a peaceful solution, namely – discussions and negotiations at the table to find common ground. Many countries that are not involved in the conflict wish that conditions will return to normal and there will be no casualties, and children can also have a better future. So we are still trying and struggling to find a way, a formulation, to put all members at the table in a very peaceful manner. And then we’ll talk through a step-by-step the solution for the crisis.