As Xi Skips G20 Summit, Joe Biden To Show US Better Security Partner Than China

President Joe Biden wants to show the world at the Group of 20 summit in India and during a stop in Vietnam that the United States and its like-minded allies are better economic and security partners than China.

White House officials said Biden, who departed Thursday evening for New Delhi, will use the annual G20 gathering as an opportunity for the U.S. to highlight a proposition for developing and middle-income countries that would increase the lending power of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund by some $200 billion.

That is an attempt to offer a significant, albeit smaller, alternative to China's massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, which the U.S. views as a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion. Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to skip the summit, where Premier Li Qiang will represent the country, according to AP.

After the summit, Biden and Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will meet in Hanoi and are expected to announce plans to tighten economic cooperation.

Vietnam and China have robust trade relations, but also deep differences. Vietnam, like Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei, has been in a tense territorial standoff for decades with China, which has claimed authority over waters in the South China Sea that are hundreds of miles from the Chinese coastline, as per the AP report.

"I think Xi's absence at this particular summit, if that comes to pass, really is a big missed opportunity for the Chinese," said Colleen Cottle, deputy director at the Washington think tank Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. "And I think it affords the Biden administration even more of a chance to go on the offensive in terms of stepping up and showing ... what their value proposition is to the Global South."

Leaders of the U.S., India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were working to finalize a joint infrastructure deal that could be announced in New Delhi, according to an official familiar with the matter, added the AP report.

If it comes together, the arrangement would involve ship transit between India and Saudi Arabia, then trains through Saudi Arabia and the UAE, likely to Jordan, then ship transit to Turkey and onward from there by train, according to a diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he could not confirm the deal. He said the initiative is something "that we've invested effort into with our partners.:"

"We believe that connectivity from India across the Middle East to Europe is incredibly important and would bring a significant number of economic benefits, as well as strategic benefits, to
all of the countries involved," he told reporters accompanying Biden aboard Air Force one.

Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Goodreturns staff.