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All G20 leaders, including Putin, invited to Indonesia summit - minister

Now all the countries in G20 have received their invitations, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said

WASHINGTON, April 21. /TASS/. The leaders of all G20 countries have been invited to the upcoming summit in Indonesia, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Thursday.

When asked whether Putin will be present at the G20 summit scheduled to take place on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, the minister replied: "Well, we [have] invited." She added that invitation to top-level events are sent beforehand.

"Now all the countries in G20 have received their invitations," she added.

"In terms of arranging the meeting itself, just like what we had yesterday, it was not easy, but, in the end, they are all in the same room. But if you don’t agree and you want to express this <…>, you walk out," she said, apparently referring to a decision by some delegates to leave Wednesday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers and Central Bank chiefs during the speech of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who participated in the event via a video linkup.

"That’s another expression of the politics, but it doesn’t prevent us from talking about the substance which is important," the Indonesian minister said. "So this should be manageable and doable."

Bloomberg reported earlier, citing own sources, that the United States had demanded that Indonesia exclude Russian President Vladimir Putin from participation in the upcoming G20 summit, warning that otherwise some countries might send lower level delegations to the meeting. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a decision about Putin’s participation in the summit would depend on the situation and the Kremlin would mostly be guided by the position of the host country.