Ukraine, China-US frictions dominate at summit

Bali: "Recover Together, Recover Stronger" - the theme picked by Indonesia when it took over the presidency of G20 a year ago appeared apt at that time for the group of the world's major economies fighting the effects of the Covid pandemic.

But just ahead of the November 15-16 summit of the Group of 20 in the upmarket Nusa Dua area of the resort Island, this slogan painted on buses and on billboards seems slightly dated. Russia's war in Ukraine has piled more economic challenges onto the world, threatening food and energy shortages.

Apart from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its impact on the global economy, another event being watched with interest is a meeting expected Monday between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The relations between the two countries plummeted when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, an event Beijing saw as a deliberate provocation. Beijing reacted with a series of military exercises around the self-ruled island.

Biden flew into Bali late Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive later Monday to take part in the main sessions of the summit and some bilateral meetings, as world leaders began gathering here. Balinese dancers welcomed each delegation. Modi will have separate bilateral meetings with a number of leaders on the sidelines of the summit but it was not immediately clear if a separate meeting between Modi and Xi is in the works. But if that happens, it would be the first one-on-one meeting between the two since the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash. The two leaders attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan's Samarkand in September.