![]() ![]() Xi certainly understands optics, of which he is a master. Yet only Secretary of State Antony Blinken got an audience, albeit brief, with Xi, and then he was shunted to the side as Xi occupied the head of the table, alone. Over the past three months, the US has sent a blitzkrieg of senior administration officials - three cabinet secretaries and its top climate envoy - in an effort to right the ship. The US has been making a major effort over the last three months to patch up a relationship between the two countries that appeared to be on a downward spiral since a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over America early this year. There had been considerable hope in some circles that Presidents Joe Biden and Xi would be able to pick up the dialogue the two had begun in Bali, Indonesia, at the last G20 summit in November. ![]() Who knows how Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have reacted to a drop-in from the Russian president - it seems Putin preferred not to find out. Under an arrest warrant issued in March, following his indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Putin is subject to seizure if he sets foot in any of the court’s 123 member states. That said, India is not an ICC signatory. With Russian President Vladimir Putin skipping the meeting and sending his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead, and China’s Xi Jinping sending Premier Li Qiang in his place, this could be an opportunity for greater unity on key issues for those world leaders still attending. Unless this opportunity is well and deftly played. ![]()
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