Rio de Janeiro: Prime Minister Narendra Modi took centre stage at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, holding crucial bilateral discussions with world leaders. During the event, he met US President Joe Biden and other world leaders. A video of the same surfaced where he could be seen next to Biden. The prime minister also shared photos with Biden where he could be seen sharing light moments with the outgoing American President. However, the details of the conversation are yet to be made public.
Will PM Modi, and Biden hold a bilateral meeting?
There is no clarity yet on a bilateral meeting between Modi and Biden on the margins of the G20 summit in this Brazilian city. If there are no structured talks between the two leaders on the margin of the G20 summit, then the brief encounter could be their last one-on-one interaction before Biden hands over the US presidency to Republican leader Donald Trump next month.
In the US presidential election held on November 5, 78-year-old Trump pulled off an incredible comeback, handing a crushing defeat to Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.
Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies began arriving on Monday at Rio de Janeiro's Modern Art Museum for their annual summit, bracing for a shift in the global order with the return to power of US President-elect Donald Trump. Host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received the heads of government on a red carpet at the museum where they will meet through midday on Tuesday.
PM Modi to hold multiple bilateral meetings
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also arrived in Brazil on Monday on the second leg of his three-nation visit, during which he will attend the G20 Summit. During the much-awaited visit, he is scheduled to hold multiple bilateral meetings with world leaders. According to the itinerary shared by the Ministry of External Affairs, PM Modi will hold separate meetings with his UK counterpart Keir Starmer. As India and the UK held multiple meetings on the Free Trade Agreement, it is likely the two leaders would discuss the issue.
Their discussions of trade, climate change and international security will run up against the sharp US policy changes that Trump vows upon taking office in January, from tariffs to the promise of a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine.
US-Chinese President likely to be central players
While US President Joe Biden arrives as a lame duck with just two months remaining in the White House, China's President Xi Jinping will be a central player at a G20 summit riven with geopolitical tensions amid the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Diplomats drafting a joint statement for the summit's leaders have struggled to hold together a fragile agreement on how to address the escalating Ukraine war, even a vague call for peace without criticism of any participants, sources said.
A massive Russian air strike on Ukraine on Sunday shook what little consensus they had established, with European diplomats pushing to revisit previously agreed language on global conflicts. The United States has also lifted prior limits on Ukraine's use of US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.
Security in Rio de Janeiro has been strengthened with troops reinforcing police for the duration of the summit.
A Brazilian army patrol came under gunfire near a Rio de Janeiro slum in the hours before the summit began, police said. No one was injured in the incident by the hillside Cidade de Deus community some 20 km (12 miles) west of the G20 venue.
(With inputs from agency)
