June 21, 2022: -Indonesia’s president says the war in Ukraine must finish as it’s driving up food and energy prices and putting growing nations such as Indonesia at risk.

“The most important thing I’m concerned about is the food price. So, we want the war in Ukraine to stop, resolved with the negotiation so that we can focus on the economy,” Joko Widodo told on Friday.

Jokowi said that the war should be resolved in negotiation and dialogue.

The Indonesian leader attends the meeting of the Group of 7 advanced economies at the invitation of the host country Germany from June 26-28. Russian news agency Tass reported in the previous week that Jokowi would be meeting President Vladimir Putin by this month’s end.

“After G-7, I will visit a few countries related to the food issue,” he told CNBC. Jokowi refused to confirm if he was calling Russia or Ukraine, which come among the largest producers and exporters of food grain globally.

The chair of the Group of 20 huge economies, Indonesia, will be hosting the Heads of State and Government Summit in Bali. Despite calls to take Russia out of the G-20, Indonesia invites Putin to the leaders’ summit. He is inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia’s a member of the grouping, but Ukraine is not. Widodo is underlining the sense behind his decision to invite Zelenskyy to Bali.

“There’s a problem here, and mainly the war. In G-20, we need to invite Ukraine so that we can resolve the problem,” he added.

In April, the Indonesian leader turned down Zelenskyy’s request for weapons, which offered humanitarian aid. Indonesia said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unacceptable” but did not call out Moscow as the aggressor.

Supply chain disruptions because of the war have caused food prices worldwide. The World Food Programme of the UN is warning that those facing critical food insecurity in the world could increase to 323 million this year, up from 276 million currently due to the war in Ukraine.

Wheat prices have increased since the war started, disrupting farming and blocking grain exports from Ukraine.