Indonesia president to visit Ukraine, Russia on peace-building mission

Reuters:  Indonesian President Joko Widodo started a visit on Ukraine on Wednesday that is intended to help rekindle peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and explore ways to free up exports of grain to global markets.

President Widodo, better known as Jokowi, and his wife arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv by train, the Indonesian presidential website said.

Jokowi is the chair of the Group of 20 (G20) nations and one of six world leaders the United Nations appointed as "champions" of a Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG), formed to address the threat of an hunger and destitution posed by the war in Ukraine.

He has said he is committed to tackling rising food and energy prices, with the Ukraine conflict causing food and energy shortages that have stoked inflation in many countries.

Before the war, Ukraine had been one of Indonesia's biggest wheat suppliers.

Indonesian President  said on Sunday he will urge his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to open room for dialogue during a peace-building mission to the warring countries and ask Russia's Vladimir Putin to order an immediate ceasefire.

"War has to be stopped and global food supply chains need to be reactivated," Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, said before leaving for Germany to attend the G7 summit on Monday.