At a time when the President of China, Xi Jinping, and the Russian President Vladimir Putin have decided not to attend the 18th G20 Summit held in New Delhi this year, the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, will arrive two days prior to the start of the Summit and will be meeting Indian PM Narendra Modi.
On September 1, 2023, the White House informed that Biden will visit India on September 7, 2023, and the very next day, he will participate in a bilateral meeting with PM Narendra Modi to further strengthen and embolden growing ties between the two countries.
The White House Statement
In a statement, the White House stated, “On September 7, 2023, the President will travel to New Delhi to attend the G20 Leaders Summit. On September 8, he will participate in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
The White House further stated that “While in New Delhi, President Joe Biden will also commend PM Narendra Modi’s leadership of the G20 and will also reaffirm the US commitment to the G20 as the premier forum of economic cooperation, including hosting it in 2026.
Details of the Meeting
During his visit, Joe Biden will strongly advocate for the reform of the multilateral development banks and will propose measures to bolster their institutional financial capabilities and capacity. The move aims to address the challenges related to poverty reduction, fostering prosperity, and combat the climate crisis or climate change. He also intends to convey the message that the US is in solidarity with the Global South.
President Biden and G20 partners will discuss collaborative efforts to address global challenges, including clean energy transition, climate change mitigation, economic and social impacts stemming from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict (2022) led by President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the strengthening of the multilateral development banks such as the World Bank and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to combat poverty and address global challenges.
While Biden and Modi are expected to hold bilateral talks, the details of the engagement remain in discussion. The discussions will likely focus on implementing the agreements that PM Modi reached during his state visit to the US in June 2023. However, due to India’s diplomatic commitments during the summit and time constraints, the bilateral engagement will be less and limited in scope.
Putin’s Visit to China
Notably, the White House statement came hours after Vladimir Putin, in a televised address, called his Chinese counterpart a friend and added that he was planning to visit Beijing soon. According to the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Putin who said “Quite soon, we will have events, and there will be a meeting with the President of the People’s Republic of China.”
“Xi calls him a friend, and I am happy to call him my friend because he is a person and a well-known figure who does a lot of development of the Russian- Chinese relations.”
Earlier this week, Putin announced that he would not be attending the G20 Summit this year in New Delhi. He had a telephone discussion with PM Narendra Modi and cited his busy schedule as a reason for his absence. He will be sending his Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
Similarly, a day after China released a new controversial map depicting territories of India and Southeast Asian nations as its own, reports said that Xi will miss the G20 Summit, In his place, Chinese minister Li Qiang will attend the summit.
Ever since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, China has emerged as one of the closest allies of Russia. The Xi Jinping Regime has refused to blame and criticise Moscow for the war and blamed the Western nations for sanctions against Russia.
