President Biden arrives today in New Delhi for the G-20 summit of leading world economic nations. One of his goals is to make the U.S.'s case for isolating Russia after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and to build new partnerships with African and Asian countries who have been increasingly reliant on Chinese investments. Both China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's war criminal leader Vladimir Putin will be absent and represented by lower level officials. While Putin is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, India is not a signatory to the underlying agreement. Biden will meet before the G-20 conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose economy is growing but who has persistent issues with human rights and treatment of its Muslim minority. Biden is hoping to draw Modi more to the U.S. and West position on Russia, as well as its cooperation with China as part of the BRICS group. Following the G-20, Biden will travel to Vietnam to announce a strategic partnership as a bulwark against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea.
That China and Russia won't be represented by their leaders gives the U.S. and its allies more clout at the conference, and an opportunity to press their agendas. Bilateral meetings at G-20 conferences have always proved to be more productive that the general commitments made in the communique at the summit's conclusion. China's ailing economy may make it easier for the West to replace China's investment activities -- which are highly coercive -- in developing nations. Russia's blockade of Ukrainian grain shipments, which go overwhelmingly to poorer African nations, will certainly be a major part of the discussion, as will their efforts to evade sanctions placed on them.
