Indian PM holds meetings with US, French, Indonesian Presidents

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tuesday with the presidents of the United States, France, and Indonesia, as well as his British and Dutch counterparts, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, which is taking place between November 15-16 on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a meeting with Modi at the building the summit is being held in. The latter also held discussions with US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Indian PM's press service said, posting photos from the meetings on the official Twitter account. 

The interactions with world leaders at the Bali @g20org Summit continue. pic.twitter.com/mGnb6f4jd3

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 15, 2022

Modi also met with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first face-to-face meeting between the two, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Later, the Indian Foreign Ministry said Modi and Biden reviewed the ongoing deepening of the strategic partnership between the two nations.

"They reviewed the continuing deepening of the India-US strategic partnership including cooperation in future-oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, etc," New Delhi said.

The leaders also expressed their satisfaction with the close cooperation between New Delhi and Washington in new groups such as Quad, I2U2, and others, the foreign ministry added.

Check out: The G20 summit; why is it important?

Meanwhile, Modi thanked Biden for his "continued support" for strengthening the partnership between their two countries, expressing confidence that they both would continue maintaining close coordination during India's presidency of the G20.

Biden landed in Bali on Sunday to attend the G20 summit that will be attended by leaders from 20 of the world's largest economies, followed by a high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

On Wednesday, Biden said concerning the meeting with Xi that he hopes to get a good grasp of his priorities and concerns, and "lay out what each of our red lines are."

The meeting marks the first face-to-face talk the two leaders have had since Biden assumed the US Presidency.

Both Xi and Biden sought to lower the heat during their two-hour meeting on the resort island of Bali, saying they wanted to avoid high tensions escalating into conflict.

In a sign of progress, the White House announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China, making him the most senior US visitor since 2018.

After the somewhat relieving conclusion to the meeting and a show of warming ties between Washington and Beijing, Xi addressed the G20 summit on Tuesday, urging major world economies at the meeting to resist politicizing and weaponizing food and energy commerce and to abolish unilateral prohibitions on research and technology cooperation.

"It is vital to oppose politicizing and weaponizing food and energy issues deliberately. It is vital to lift unilateral sanctions and cancel restrictions in relevant research and technology cooperation spheres," the Chinese president underlined.