President Jokowi Delivers Bad News! Russia-Ukraine War Is Still Long

The corner of Kharkiv city after being hit by a Russian missile (Twitter @DefenceU)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) analyzes that the war between Russia and Ukraine will not end soon. Jokowi asked state officials and economists to make a strategy to deal with the crisis.

"From meeting the two presidents, I conclude that this situation will take a long time, don't expect the war tomorrow or next month to end," said President Joko Widodo in Jakarta, Wednesday, September 7.

President Joko Widodo conveyed this in "Sarasehan 100 Economist Indonesia 2022" which was attended by Ministers of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet, CEO of CT Troops Chairul Tanjung, and other economists.

President Jokowi is known to have met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at Maryinsky Palace, Kyiv on June 29, 2022. President Jokowi also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on June 30, 2022.

"I talked to President Zelensky for 1.5 hours, while with President Putin for 2.5 hours, but with a chair close. Not with a distance of 5 meters, if I was accepted with a distance of 5 meters at that time I just went home, I was accepted like that, how come anyone wants it? If I don't want to," said the President.

It is known that the positions of keeping a distance were seen at the meeting of French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 7, 2022.

"(Dialogue) is very not easy, we encourage dialogue to occur, preparing the dialogue room is just very, very difficult, so I turn around, let's say (peace) we don't meet, I just talk about the food crisis, I finally meet," said the President.

President Jokowi said he conveyed President Zelensky's message to President Putin that Ukraine has 22 million tons of wheat stock and there are still 55 million tons of new harvests but cannot leave Ukraine due to Russia's security guarantees.

"And that's what I conveyed to President Putin and then President Putin said 'I guarantee you, there is no problem', I asked if I could convey it to the media and the answer was 'please', and 2-3 days there was a ship coming out of meow to Istanmbul," added the President.

From the talks with the two leaders of the country, President Jokowi emphasized that the war will still last for a long time and the impact is not yet known.

"Yes, it can be increased in food prices throughout the country, to energy too, yes. Gas prices increase up to 5 times and oil prices are up to 2 times, where else will it affect? To finance? Yes, to what extent does it affect 'growth' and inflation? Which country has it hit? This must be really careful, we can't just talk about macro, the micro is too, and more importantly details one by one must be removed," explained the President.

President Jokowi invites economists to change their mindset because the world's economic and geopolitical conditions in the world have changed.