Biden and Xi Jinping to skip G20 summit where Putin will speak
Photo: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden (Getty Images)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host a virtual summit of G20 leaders on Wednesday, November 22. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will skip the meeting, while Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will attend the online event, according to Bloomberg.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the summit instead of Xi Jinping.
The online meeting comes a day after Modi skipped a virtual summit of leaders of emerging economies attended by Xi. At the meeting, in particular, the conflict between Israel and Hamas was discussed.
As the agency notes, today's meeting takes place at the moment when Modi ends India's presidency of the G20.
India's leader used the one-year term, which ends this month, to showcase the South Asian country's growing global influence ahead of national elections in 2024 in which Modi will seek a third term as prime minister.
At the same time, Indian Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra said at a briefing the day before that the vast majority of G-20 leaders will attend the video meeting.
US President Joe Biden is skipping the summit, and the Kremlin has confirmed that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will address the gathering of world leaders.
India hopes to review the progress made during its year as chairman when it made support for developing economies a key agenda item.
The countries of the group also worked out a compromise wording on Russia's invasion of Ukraine during a leaders' summit in September. But since then, the war between Israel and Hamas has exacerbated the divide between the developed world and the countries of the Global South.
Previous G20 summit
On September 9, the summit of the G20 countries was held in India. The purpose of the leaders' meeting was to discuss important topics, including economic ones. This meeting took place without Ukraine, but it was attended by representatives of Russia.
The G20 leaders reached a consensus on a joint declaration at the summit. Ukraine was mentioned there. You can learn more about the decision in the declaration in RBC-Ukraine.
We would like to add that after reading it, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine criticized the weak statement of the G20 regarding Ukraine.
