- Saturday, July 27, 2024
The summit is expected to be one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in India.
By: India Weekly Staff
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden will travel to India from September 7 to 10 to attend the G20 leaders’ summit during which he will discuss with other leaders a range of global issues, including the Ukraine conflict, the White House announced on Tuesday (22).
During his maiden visit to the south Asian nation after taking over the president’s post in 2021, Biden, 80, will also commend prime minister Narendra Modi’s leadership of the G20, the White House added.
The G20 world leaders’ summit will take place in New Delhi on September 9 and 10. The event is expected to be one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in India.
India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 last year from Indonesia.
“President Biden and G20 partners will discuss a range of joint efforts to tackle global issues, including on the clean energy transition and combatting climate change, mitigating the economic and social impacts of Putin’s war in Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“Increasing the capacity of multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, to better fight poverty, including by addressing global challenges,” she said in a statement.
In New Delhi, Biden will also reaffirm Washington’s commitment to the G20 as the premier forum of economic cooperation, including by hosting it in 2026, Jean-Pierre added.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden’s talks with leaders on the sidelines of the summit will focus on climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other global challenges.
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.
The members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade and about two-thirds of the world population.
The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.
Meanwhile, US vice president Kamala Harris will visit Jakarta, Indonesia, from September 4-7 to attend the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit and engage with leaders from the Indo-Pacific, Jean-Pierre said.
Harris and ASEAN leaders will review the unprecedented expansion in US-ASEAN relations under the Biden-Harris administration and the vice president will reaffirm the US’s enduring commitment to Southeast Asia and ASEAN centrality, the press secretary said.
“This visit builds on President Biden’s participation in the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November 2022, his virtual participation in the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit in November 2021, and the president’s and vice president’s engagements with ASEAN leaders at the historic May 2022 U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit in Washington, D.C.
“This is the vice president’s third trip to Southeast Asia in the past two years, and builds on her August 2021 visit to Singapore and Vietnam and her November 2022 visit to Thailand and the Philippines,” Jean-Pierre said.
(With PTI inputs)
