Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with the U.S. President Joseph Biden and also exchanged words with Chinese President Xi Jinping -- their first such meeting in three years -- on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on November 15, 2022. On November 16, 2022, Mr. Modi is expected to hold more structured, bilateral meetings with at least eight of the 16 leaders present in Bali for the annual meeting of the world’s most advanced economies, including his first such interaction with the U.K.’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.

The PM’s meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping at Bali was remarkable, given that Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi had not had any public interaction at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit at Samarkand in September, despite standing next to each other during the joint photo call. The two leaders had last held a bilateral meeting in November 2019. They have not publicly spoken at all since the April 2020 standoff at the Line of Actual Control and the killing of soldiers at Galwan in June that year.

At the G-20 leaders’ banquet however, Mr. Modi was seen standing up from the dinner table where he was seated next to the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and turning around to greet the Chinese President as he walked in. Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi then shook hands and spoke to each other, with their translators attending. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not respond to requests for a readout of the informal exchange.

Mr. Modi also held a “pull-aside” meeting with Mr. Biden at the Nusa Dua convention centre in Bali, on the margins of the G-20 sessions, officials said.

“[PM Modi and President Biden] reviewed the continuing deepening of the India-U.S. strategic partnership including cooperation in future oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, etc.”, said the MEA in a statement, adding that they had also discussed cooperation in groupings like the Quad, and I2U2 (India-Israel-UAE-US partnership) during the meeting.

The two leaders discussed topical global and regional developments,” the MEA said, without giving any details of the discussions, if any, on the differences between India and the U.S. over the Russian war in Ukraine. “PM Modi thanked President Biden for his constant support for strengthening the India-U.S. partnership. He expressed confidence that both countries would continue to maintain close coordination during India’s G-20 Presidency,” the statement added.