G-20 LEADERS SUMMIT

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with U.S. President Joseph Biden and exchanged words with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali on Tuesday.
• On Wednesday, Mr. Modi is expected to hold more structured, bilateral meetings with at least eight of the 16 leaders present in Bali for the annual meeting of the world’s most advanced economies, including his first such interaction with the U.K.’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italy’s GiorgiaMeloni.
• The Prime Minister’s meeting with Mr. Xi, their first such in three years, was remarkable, given that they had not had any public interaction at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit at Samarkand in September, despite standing next to each other during the joint photo call. The two leaders last held a bilateral meeting in November 2019. They have not publicly spoken at all since the April 2020 stand-off at the Line of Actual Control and the killing of soldiers at Galwan in June that year.
• At the G-20 leaders’ banquet however, Mr. Modi was seen standing up from the dinner table where he was seated next to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and turning around to greet Mr. Xi as he walked in.

PM meets Xi, Biden in Bali

• Modi and Mr. Xi then shook hands and spoke to each other, with their translators attending. The MEA did not respond to requests for a readout of the conversation, but sources said the two leaders had just “exchanged courtesies at the conclusion of the dinner”
• . Mr. Modi also held a “pull-aside” meeting with Mr. Biden at the Nusa Dua convention centre in Bali, on the margins of the G-20 sessions, officials said.
• “[PM Modi and President Biden] reviewed the continuing deepening of the India-U.S. strategic partnership, including cooperation in future- oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, etc.”, the Ministry said in a statement, adding that they had also discussed cooperation in groupings such as the Quad and I2U2 (India-Israel-UAE-US partnership) during the meeting.
• “The two leaders discussed topical global and regional developments,” the MEA said, without giving any details of the discussions, if any, on the differences between India and the U.S. over the Russian war in Ukraine. “PM Modi thanked President Biden for his constant support for strengthening the India-U.S. partnership,” the statement added.

Shared commitment

• A U.S. White House statement said Mr. Biden had met PM Modi and President Widodo together “to reaffirm their shared commitment to the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation” but didn’t refer to bilateral issues with India.
• On Wednesday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo will hand over the G-20 process to Mr. Modi, and India will formally assume its presidency from December 1 this year. After the final G-20 sessions, Mr. Modi will hold separate bilateral meetings with at least eight leaders, beginning with Mr. Widodo, followed by Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, French President Emmanuel Macron, Singapore’s PM Lee Hsein Loong, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian PM Giorgia Melon, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, and U.K. PM Rishi Sunak.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB