Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said that Vladimir Putin will attend next week's G20 summit "if there is an opportunity", noting that Putin may attend virtually instead.

 This is reported by Reuters.

 Jokowi said Putin had not ruled out attending the Bali summit in a phone call last week and would join if possible.

 "But if not... maybe he will ask to do it virtually," Jokowi told reporters during a visit to Bali.

 The Financial Times previously quoted Jokowi as saying that his conversation with Putin left him with a "strong impression" that he would not be attending.

 The meeting in Bali is expected to be dominated by tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 As the G20 host, Indonesia has resisted pressure from Western countries and Ukraine to rescind Putin's invitation to the leaders' summit and expel Russia from the group, saying it does not have the authority to do so without consensus among members.

 Jokowi told the Financial Times that Russia was welcome at the summit, which he feared would be overshadowed by a "very worrying" rise in international tensions. "The Group of Twenty is not meant to be a political forum. It is meant to discuss economics and development," he said.

 Indonesia also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who said he would not attend if Putin did.

 Several other world leaders are expected to attend, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.