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The socio-economic impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war will figure in United States President Joe Biden’s discussions with the other G20 leaders in New Delhi next month, the White House has stated, notwithstanding India’s attempts to push the conflict down on the agenda of the 18th summit of the forum.
Biden’s visit to New Delhi for the G20 summit was officially announced in Washington by the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who added that the US president will discuss with his counterparts the ways to mitigate the social and economic impacts of “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine”.
The transition to clean energy and combatting climate change is also likely to be high on the agenda of the US president.
Biden will travel to New Delhi from September 7 to 10 to attend the G20 summit in New Delhi, Jean-Pierre said in Washington DC on Tuesday. He will also discuss with the other G20 leaders “increasing the capacity of multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, to better fight poverty, by addressing global challenges.”
This is going to be Biden’s first visit to India after taking over as the US president in January 20, 2021. He, however, had several meetings with Modi in the past two-and-a-half years, including the latest in Washington DC, when the PM was on a state visit from June 20 to 24 this year.
The tension between Moscow and the western nations over Russia’s “special military operations” in Ukraine already cast its long shadow over India’s G20 presidency, which commenced in December 2022. Russia and China blocked the joint communiques, which were expected to be issued after the G20 meetings hosted by India over the past few months. India had to issue chair’s summaries after almost all the meetings, clarifying that Russia and China had not endorsed the paragraphs condemning the former Soviet Union nation’s military aggression against Ukraine.
New Delhi is now concerned over the possibility of the geopolitical tension triggered by the conflict eclipsing other issues on the agenda of the next summit of the G20.
India, which does not want the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the top of the G20 agenda, has been underlining that the priority for its presidency has been leading the premier forum for international economic cooperation to focus on developmental issues, inclusive and sustainable growth, gender equality, finances from multilateral institutions for accelerated development and transition to clean energy, mitigating the impact of climate change, reforming multilateral financial institutions and technological transformation.
But the Biden Administration of late made it clear that Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine would be a top priority for the US president in the upcoming G20 summit.