After years of ever-rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping explain themselves for the first time face-to-face on Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali, at the forefront of the war-shattered G-20 summit in Ukraine.
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Nine months after he launched his army to invade Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will conspicuously miss a meeting of the leaders of major global economies on Tuesday and Wednesday, the largest gathering of its kind since the start of the pandemic.
The conflict in Ukraine is not officially on the event list, but between rising energy and food prices and fears of nuclear escalation, it is dominating fears and unleashing threatening divisions between Westerners and southern nations clustered in the tropics. Island.
A first glimpse into the tone of the event will be given on Monday with a meeting between the US president, who arrived in Bali on Sunday evening, and his Chinese counterpart, the first in their current position.
The two men, who have known each other for a decade, have no shortage of topics to discuss. Besides China’s refusal to condemn the Russian invasion, there is disagreement between Washington and Beijing over issues ranging from trade to human rights in China’s Xinjiang region to the status of Taiwan.
Joe Biden in particular wants to urge Beijing to use its influence to placate North Korea, which has just carried out a record series of missile launches and appears to be preparing for its seventh nuclear test.
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” Biden said, noting that the two had always had “frank discussions.”
“We have very little misunderstanding. We just have to define what the red lines are,” the US president said.
His National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan emphasized that Biden hopes for a “live” exchange, but also to find topics for “cooperation on core issues.” “The United States is ready for fierce competition with China, but it does not seek confrontation,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Ryan Haas, a former Chinese official at the US National Security Council, said the Chinese president “should not be tolerant of Biden,” as he was with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz during a recent meeting, so as not to be seen as “joining” its demands on Ukraine or nuclear or North Korea.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who visited Indonesia on Sunday, will urge other powers to unite against the “malicious actors” of the global economy in a covert attack on China.
Vladimir Putin decided to be represented by the head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov at the G-20, officially for reasons of schedule. But some take it as a sign that the journey was politically fraught, especially as his army retreats into southern Ukraine.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the “politicization of the G-20” and called on it to focus on the economic issues behind the establishment of this form that brings together the major economies of the world instead of focusing on security issues in light of Moscow’s vision of the United Nations. .
Russia is expected to come under pressure to extend a deal allowing grain and fertilizer exports through Black Sea ports, which expires on November 19.
At a minimum, Joe Biden and his allies want to deliver a clear message from the G-20 to Vladimir Putin that nuclear conflict is unacceptable. But even on this subject, the rapprochement between China and Russia can make a common message with Westerners unattainable.
The host of the summit, Indonesia has already warned that one should not necessarily expect the traditional closing joint statement that traditionally concludes this type of meeting.
However, the summit will provide a rare opportunity for Western leaders, supporters of Ukraine, and countries of the South, many of whom refuse to condemn Moscow, to talk to each other.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be able to defend his case directly, by speaking via video link.
“It is important at this difficult moment in human history that there is international cooperation and the G20 will be another opportunity to look each other in the eye,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Saturday.
