TW Newsdesk, March 19: Russia sanctions show Visa and Mastercard could become a “problem,” President Joko Widodo warned. The leader of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has suggested that Indonesia must decrease its dependence on foreign payment systems to negate the risk of a potentially disastrous economic fallout should the country ever come into cross hairs of Western sanctions.

Addressing a business forum in Jakarta this week, Widodo argued that Indonesia must shield itself from geopolitical disruptions, stating a sanction attack on Russia’s financial sector by the US, the EU and their allies over the conflict in Ukraine.