VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he intends to run for re-election and would likely make a final decision by early next year, after declaring the results of Tuesday's midterm elections good for democracy.

White House officials expressed a sense of vindication that Biden's fellow Democrats did better than expected.

Biden, who turns 80 this month, has faced questions on whether he will seek a second term. A Biden adviser said preparatory discussions for a 2024 campaign were under way.

"Our intention is to run again, that's been our intention," Biden told reporters at the White House, his wife Jill sitting nearby. "This is ultimately a family decision."

Biden said his family wanted him to run and he did not feel rushed to make a final decision. He said he would do so unrelated to any announcement from his 2020 rival, Republican former President Donald Trump, who is expected to run as well.

Biden has spent his first two years in office warning against threats to democracy after Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and did not accept Biden's legitimate victory.

He underscored those arguments in the final days of the midterm elections.

When asked how other world leaders should view this moment for America, with Trump potentially running again, Biden said the answer was to make sure Trump never returned to power.

“We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power if he does run, making sure he - under legitimate efforts of our Constitution - does not become the next president again,” Biden said.

Trump has criticized Biden's policies sharply and has said he will make an announcement about his plans next week.

About a potential competition between Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination, Biden said it would be "fun watching them take on each other."

Biden, in a jovial mood, parlayed with reporters for nearly an hour in the White House State Dining Room and talked about an array of issues including billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk's ties with other countries.

He gently chided reporters for predicting, based on opinion polls, bigger losses for his Democrats.

Republicans made modest gains in Tuesday's elections and are likely to take control of the House of Representatives, but control of the Senate hinges on three races that remained too close to call late on Wednesday. A so-called "red wave" or large Republican takeover did not occur. 

"It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden said.

He acknowledged that the results showed Americans were frustrated, however. Inflation was a big topic for voters.

Biden focused his campaign pitch largely on preventing threats to U.S. democracy, securing abortion rights and extolling his economic policies.

Republicans are expected to try to undo some of those policies and prevent him from achieving further goals.

Biden said he was prepared to work with Republicans.

"The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” he said.

Biden said he would veto efforts to pass a national ban on abortion and opposed tax cuts for the wealthy, two policy proposals Republicans may pursue.

He said he was going to speak to House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy later on Wednesday and, when Biden returns from a trip to Asia, would invite Democratic and Republican leaders to the White House to discuss priorities going forward.

The White House has prepared for a host of investigations that may come from a Republican-controlled House, including over his son Hunter's business dealings. Biden said the American people would look at such probes for what he said they were - "almost comedy" - but said he could not control what they did. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend a gathering of leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations in person next week but may join virtually, officials from Russia and the host country Indonesia said on Thursday.

Indonesia has resisted pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin and expel Russia from the group over the war in Ukraine, saying it does not have the authority to do so without consensus among members.

Putin might take part by video conference though "the format of (his) participation is being worked out," Russia's state news agency RIA reported, citing a diplomat in the Russian embassy in Indonesia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Putin on the ground at the meeting on the island of Bali, the officials said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo had been trying to mediate between global powers ahead of what will be the first meeting of leaders from the group since Russia invaded Ukraine in what Putin calls a "special military operation".

"(The president) has tried to ensure that everyone cools down and that seems to be happening now," Luhut Pandjaitan, the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs, told reporters in Bali.

The president told the Financial Times this week that Russia was welcome at the summit, which he feared would be overshadowed by a "very worrying" rise in international tensions.

"The G20 is not meant to be a political forum. It's meant to be about economics and development," he was quoted as saying.

Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has said he will not take part if Putin does and was expected to join virtually.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to join other world leaders at the summit which starts on Nov. 15. (Reuters)

The United States and China laid out early markers this week ahead of a meeting expected next week between their presidents on the sidelines of a summit of the G20 grouping of nations in Indonesia.

The United States should work together with China to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday, when asked about reports of the meeting.

For his part, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was not willing to make any fundamental concessions when he meets with counterpart Xi Jinping.

He wanted both leaders to lay out what their "red lines" were and resolve areas of conflict, including issues such as self-governed Taiwan, he added.

Beijing and Washington have been working on an in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021, U.S. officials have said previously, even as they have talked on the telephone and met online.

No date or time has yet been made public for next week's expected meeting at the summit on the resort island of Bali.

"China attaches importance to the U.S. proposal to hold a meeting between the two heads of state in Bali," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a regular briefing in the Chinese capital on Thursday.

"Currently, the two sides are maintaining communication in this regard."

Tensions between the United States and China has run high over Taiwan, particularly after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit this year to the self-governing island claimed by China.

Taiwan remains the "core of China's core interests", Zhao said.

"We are willing to work with the U.S. side to realise mutual respect, peaceful co-existence, win-win cooperation, while at the same time resolutely defending our own sovereignty, security and development interests," he added. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol during an upcoming trip to Asia to discuss how to stem North Korea's nuclear program, a White House official said on Wednesday.

The leaders will meet in Cambodia on Sunday, Nov. 13, when Biden visits Asia for meetings with ASEAN and the Group of 20 industrialized nations.

"The three leaders would work to "continue enhancing trilateral cooperation throughout the Indo-Pacific, particularly in regard to our joint efforts to address the ongoing threat posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said using North Korea's official name.

In October, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile farther than ever before, sending it soaring over Japan for the first time in five years and prompting a warning for residents there to take cover.

It prompted Biden to call Kishida and reiterate America's "ironclad" commitment to the defense of Japan.

South Korean and U.S. warplanes also practiced bombing a target in the Yellow Sea in response and fighter jets from the United States and Japan carried out joint drills over the Sea of Japan.

Last week, a U.S. official told Reuters that China and Russia have leverage they can use to persuade North Korea not to resume nuclear bomb testing.

The official said while the United States had been saying since May that North Korea was preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, it was not clear when it might conduct such a test.

In May, when Biden last visited Asia, administration officials said they were in the final stages of a review of its policy towards North Korea and was keen to encourage greater trilateral cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo on that issue.

North Korea has long been banned from conducting nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches by the U.N. Security Council, which strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang over the years to try and cut off funding for those programs. (Reuters)