G20: Modi meets Biden, shakes hands with Xi

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed global and regional developments in a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia, India’s foreign ministry said in a Reuters report.

Modi and Biden “expressed satisfaction” about close cooperation between India and the United States in new groupings such as the Quad, which includes Australia and Japan, and the I2U2, which includes Israel and the UAE.

“They reviewed the continuing deepening of the India-U.S. strategic partnership,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Modi also exchanged courtesies with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of a G20 dinner, according to government sources.

A video footage of the event aired by Indian news broadcasters showed the two leaders shaking hands and exchanging words in an informal setting, surrounded by other officials.

Relations between India and China have soured since deadly border clashes between troops in June 2020 in the Galwan area of Ladakh region in the western Himalayas, in which at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting.

Modi and Xi came face-to-face previously at a summit of regional security group Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan in September.

The two leaders have not held not held any bilateral meetings since the 2020 clashes.

The Indian premier has also met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, World Bank president David Malpass, and International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva, among other leaders, at the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.