New Delhi - Leaders from the world's top economies arrive in India on Friday for a two-day G20 summit overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, worries over the global economy and climate change.
Host India has coined the optimistic slogan "One Earth, One Family, One Future", but the leaders of the Group of 20 nations are riven by differences and strategic fault lines. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are skipping the September 9-10 summit in the capital New Delhi.
The G20 consists of 19 countries and the European Union, making up about 85 percent of the global GDP and two-thirds of the world's population. Here is a snapshot of some of the key issues, who will attend and who will not:
- Joe Biden - The US leader will arrive in India keen to bolster alliances and offer support to developing countries, with Washington assessing that China is struggling. He will discuss efforts to tackle multiple issues, from "combating climate change, to mitigating the economic and social impacts of Russia's war in Ukraine", National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. Biden will be accompanied by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on her fourth visit to India in 10 months as Washington seeks reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to better serve developing countries. The White House wants the G20 to stay relevant as the "premier forum of economic cooperation globally", Sullivan added.
- Lavrov, not Putin - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will head the Russian delegation after Putin said he would not attend. In March, the International Criminal Court announced an arrest warrant for Putin on accusations of war crimes for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. The Kremlin denies the accusations, insisting the warrant against Putin is "void".
Lavrov will head the Russian delegation as he did at the BRICS summit in South Africa last month.
- Li Qiang, not Xi - Premier Li Qiang will lead China's delegation, Beijing said Monday, all but confirming that Xi will snub the meeting. The summit has taken on additional importance this year as many countries wrestle with high inflation and economic turbulence linked to a slowing recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. China, the world's second-largest economy, is labouring through headwinds including weak consumer demand, soaring youth unemployment and a crisis in the crucial property sector. It also has a long-running border dispute with G20 host nation India, with a deadly Himalayan clash in 2020 sending diplomatic relations into deep freeze. India this week is staging military exercises near the Chinese border that will continue through the summit.
- Narendra Modi - The world's most populous country holds the rotating G20 presidency and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has relished the opportunity for both India and himself to shine on the world stage. He faces an uphill challenge, however, to forge consensus between major powers over key issues. New Delhi is again at odds with Beijing after a Chinese map last week claimed land that India also claims, including territory close to where they battled in 2020. India is also seeking to develop closer ties with Western countries, including fellow Quad members the United States, Japan and Australia.
Modi is expected to push efforts to see the group expand to 21 with the African Union invited to join, a move that has been backed by Biden.
- Rest of the world - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be among the leaders representing the European Union. Fellow G7 members Britain, Canada, Japan and Italy will be represented by their respective premiers Rishi Sunak, Justin Trudeau, Fumio Kishida, and Giorgia Meloni.
From the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will take part. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend in person, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is also expected.
A delegation from the only African nation in the G20, South Africa, will be led by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is coming and Argentina's Alberto Fernandez is expected, but Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is likely to skip according to Indian media. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will attend as an observer, with the heads of the IMF and the World Bank also in attendance. Other leaders expected to attend include Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
U.S. President Joe Biden will focus on reforming the World Bank and urging other multilateral development banks to boost lending for climate change and infrastructure projects during the G20 leaders summit in India, the White House said on Tuesday. "That's one of our main focuses heading into the G20: delivering on an agenda fundamentally reshaping and scaling up the multilateral development banks, especially the World Bank," White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
The Biden administration is pushing the World Bank, founded as World War Two drew to a close to alleviate poverty, as a counterpart to China's overseas lending. New CEO Ajay Banga has pushed to expand climate change and hunger programs, and boost the bank's lending power with new funding and balance sheet rules. The White House in late August asked Congress for $3.3 billion in additional funding as part of a supplemental budget request to "materially expand development and infrastructure financing" through the World Bank to offer countries a "credible alternative to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) coercive and unsustainable lending and infrastructure projects."
"We know that these institutions are some of the most effective tools that we have for mobilizing transparent, high-quality investment into developing countries," Sullivan said Tuesday. "And that's why the United States is championing a major effort that is currently underway to involve these institutions so that they are up to the challenges of today and tomorrow." Biden will also call on G20 to provide meaningful debt relief for low-middle-income countries, Sullivan said.
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