A beautiful paradise of palm trees and pineapples, sun, sand and tranquility is what comes to mind when you think of Bali.
But this week the island of Indonesia is hosting what could be the most tense edition of the G20, or Group of 20 nations.
The annual summit – which includes 19 developed and emerging economies and the EU – was created in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis. And it considers itself a superpower club that manages future crises.
And this time, there’s a lot more on the discussion block — the Russia-Ukraine war, US-China tensions, rising inflation, the continued threat of a global recession, nuclear threats from North Korea, and perhaps most worryingly, an increasingly hot Land to be.
Amidst all this, host and Indonesian President Joko Widodo hopes to play the role of chief dealmaker. Can he do it?
Period of Dangerous Living
When we spoke ahead of the G20 meeting, Mr Widodo appeared serious about what has been described as the most diplomatically delicate and stressful G20 ever.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are due to meet on Monday – and the clash between the world’s two biggest economies has Mr Widodo worried.
“There can be no peace without dialogue,” he told me in an exclusive interview at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.
“If President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden can meet and talk, it will be great for the world, especially if they agree on how to help the world recover. “
Like many Asian countries, Indonesia has benefited from decades of free trade and multilateralism. The United States has always been Indonesia’s most important global strategic partner, but over the past decade China has consistently ranked as one of its top two foreign investors.
This has made the relationship between the two giants difficult to navigate, to say the least.
A period in which China and the US do not get along is a far more dangerous period than Indonesia and other Asian countries.
Observers say the rising tension between Washington and Beijing raises the risk of a clash in the Indo-Pacific.
Meanwhile there are also concerns about the possible use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine or the Korean Peninsula, where Pyongyang has launched a record number of missiles this year.
“The use of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated for any reason,” says Mr Widodo, also known as Jokowi. “Increasing nuclear capability is very dangerous for peace and global stability.”
