Biden and Xi Ignore Online G20 Meeting Where Putin Participates

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting a virtual meeting of G20 leaders on Wednesday, but Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden are not attending it.

According to Bloomberg, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that instead of Xi, Prime Minister Li Keqiang would take part in the G20 video summit.

The summit is to take place the day after Modi skipped a virtual meeting of developing countries’ leaders attended by Xi Jinping, where the group discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas. According to Indian media reports, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attended the meeting.

Today's meeting comes as Modi concludes India's presidency of the G20, a group of the world's largest economies. The Indian leader has used the one-year term, which ends this month, to demonstrate the South Asian country's growing global influence ahead of national elections scheduled for early next year, with Modi seeking a third term as prime minister.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a briefing on Tuesday that the "vast majority" of G20 leaders will participate in a video meeting on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden is skipping the summit while the Kremlin confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the gathering of world leaders.

India hopes to review the progress made during its year-long presidency, when it pushed the development of emerging economies as a central agenda item. India secured a joint statement at the G20 leaders' summit in September amid disagreement over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the war between Israel and Hamas has exacerbated the divide between the developed world and the Global South.

Earlier this month, Biden and Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and it was their first face-to-face meeting in a year and Xi's first visit to the United States in four years. 

Biden said that during the talks with the Chinese leader, they discussed Russia's war against Ukraine and the situation in the Gaza Strip.