High-ranking Indonesian politicians are calling on Western leaders to make concessions regarding criticism of Russia at the G20 summit so as not to leave the summit without a final statement. Politico reports talks are underway on the issue.

U.S., European, Australian, Canadian and Japanese officials are among those pressured by their Indonesian counterparts, up to and including President Joko Widodo, to show "flexibility" and consider using less harsh rhetoric to get Moscow to give the go-ahead for a final communiqué at the end of the meeting.

Widodo “considers it a personal success”  if a G20 declaration could be reached, one official said, adding that the Indonesian leader has repeatedly lamented the fact that he is presiding over the "most difficult" G20 summit in history.

He also seeks to avoid expelling Russia from the G20 and turning it into the G19, as the G8 did after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

One possibility would be a direct focus on the “upholding international law" aspect. If adopted, this would be much more veiled than the language used by the G7.

The latest G7 statement, issued after the group's foreign ministers met this month, criticized Moscow for “its war of aggression against Ukraine”

“Obviously we can’t be as tough as we do it in G7 when you need the Russians, Chinese and Saudis to agree,” a Western diplomat said, referring to the larger G20 grouping. “The question is how much we need to delete.”

China, Saudi Arabia, India and Brazil, members of the G20, are taking a wait-and-see stance on the issue.

Widodo's other problem is the likely absence of a family photo of the two-day summit, which begins Tuesday. According to the agreement, all G20 leaders were supposed to line up and take a group photo as a sign of solidarity. This time, however, Western leaders are hesitant to be in the same frame as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.