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In G20 Summit The President Biden’s strategic move
G20 Summit in India President Biden’s strategic moves at the have caught everyone’s attention. With China and Russia absent, he’s taken center stage to assert U.S. influence and tackle critical global issues. Discover the bold steps he’s taking to reshape geopolitics and safeguard international stability.
If showing strength is one of the foundational principles of life, then President Biden must have left his adversaries in the dust the moment he set foot on Indian soil after disembarking from Air Force One.
The two main geopolitical rivals of the United States, China and Russia, had to stay home as the world’s wealthiest nations gathered in New Delhi this week for the G20 Summit – a move that the Biden administration is keenly celebrating.
Biden’s goal is to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region and increase pressure on Russia to end its ongoing war with Ukraine. It’s no walk in the park, but the Biden administration hopes that the show of resistance at China’s doorstep won’t go unnoticed by the rest of the world.
After his wife tested positive for COVID just hours before the G20 Summit’s opening evening, Biden logged 7,500 miles to boost his foreign policy credentials. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin opted to stay away.
White House National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer said in a press briefing on Saturday, “The United States is focused on the fact that President Biden is here, and he is engaging with other G20 countries and partners to roll up his sleeves and deliver real results.”
Both China and Russia sent representatives to the G20 Summit, though in the autocratic system they lead, Xi and Putin are the ones with the final say. Putin’s absence is easily understood; had he come, he would have faced strong condemnation from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and other Western nations who had urged him to withdraw his troops and abandon Ukraine.
The decision by Xi not to attend the G20 summit – a move he has made for the first time since coming to power a decade ago – has surprised foreign policy analysts. Just last month, he attended a G20 summit with several other countries, including India, in South Africa.
At a time when the United States and China are trying to strengthen their partnership and gain the upper hand over each other, skipping the G20 Summit may seem like a missed opportunity.
American officials couldn’t say why Xi didn’t show up, though principles abound. He must contend with economic turmoil at home that requires his attention.
China is grappling with record-high youth unemployment due to the lockdowns brought on by COVID’s surge.
Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, said, “The G20 Summit is not the last priority for China because China has big fish to fry domestically.”
Analysts speculate that Xi may want to snub Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom he has a territorial dispute.Former National Security Advisor for the White House and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said,
“This will be seen as a slap in the face to Modi in India.” “It’s hard for me to see why Xi Jinping would take this risk. This is a little flight. Is there some crisis at home or something else going on?”
Without Xi at the table, world leaders are not getting the chance to engage in dialogue with the leader of the world’s second-largest economy, limiting the potential for success in disputes that involve trade, South China Sea navigation, and the situation in Taiwan.
It undoubtedly complicates the process of reaching a consensus because, when discussing global supply chains, if China is absent, what supply chains are we talking about?” Ravi said.
Biden had expressed disappointment last week that Xi wouldn’t be attending the summit. He had met with Xi privately in Indonesia last year, separate from the G20 summit.
Since then, relations between the two leaders have soured over Chinese espionage allegations that have spilled into American soil. In a program that promotes military readiness, Biden referred to Xi as a “thug.”
The Biden administration is also concerned that China could supply weapons to Russia, a development that could tilt the war in Putin’s favor.
(China has said it will not sell arms to any side in the conflict). American officials said on Saturday that in an initial session,
Biden argued that Russia’s war affects not only Ukraine but also harms other countries at the G20 due to hunger and economic disruptions.
Later, Biden and Modi worked together to start a number of ambitious new infrastructure projects in an effort to aid developing nations. The centerpiece being a designated ‘Economic Corridor’ that connects India, the Middle East, and Europe through rail and shipping lines.
“This is a big deal,” Biden remarked, in a more family-friendly tone compared to when he used similar rhetoric to celebrate healthcare improvements during his time as vice president.
As a global infrastructure and investment initiative, Biden’s response to China’s expansion of influence in smaller nations hungry for investment dollars is the ‘Belt and Road Initiative.’
Through a combination of public and private funding, Biden and his American allies aim to steer some weaker nations away from Beijing, providing them with an alternative source of wealth so they don’t become indebted to Beijing.
Neither Putin nor Xi were present, which may have helped draw the kind of attention to Biden that such an otherwise routine event rarely garners.
Former Assistant Secretary under the Obama administration, Daniel Russell, said, “Biden has the stage mostly to himself.”
“With Putin not there, who would have dominated the headlines, or Xi Jinping being there, he’s been taken off the stage.He is exempt from competing against Putin and Xi Jinping. And he doesn’t have to focus on how he’s going to handle them.”
The summit isn’t an unqualified win for Biden. When it comes to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the leaders issued a joint statement that goes beyond the relatively mild condemnation released last year.
At the G20 summit in Indonesia in 2022, the leaders specifically criticized the “aggressiveness of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in strong terms and demanded its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.” The new statement simply says, “All states should refrain from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
Biden could also face criticism for shaking hands with Saudi Crown Prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, on Saturday. At the end of a dedicated session for the new infrastructure framework, they exchanged pleasantries.
In the first month of Biden’s presidency, a U.S. intelligence report was released, concluding that bin Salman had approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. (Saudi Arabia issued a statement calling the intelligence report “false.”) After promising to “make [Saudi Arabia] the pariah that they are” during his campaign in 2020, Biden has called for a steady, working relationship with the kingdom to keep gas prices in check.”