Biden’s COP27, G20 plans: Talk to Xi, pressure Russia, contain North Korea

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden starts a week-long trip to Egypt and Asia on Thursday to grapple with some of the United States’ thorniest foreign policy issues, boosted by a better-than-expected showing by Democrats in the midterm elections.

Biden hops from an international climate summit in Egypt on Nov. 11 to an ASEAN meeting and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on Nov. 12 and 13 to the annual gathering of the G20, or Group of 20 industrialized nations, in Indonesia from Nov. 14-16.

He’ll hold his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20, where he hopes to explore Xi’s “red lines”, talk to allies about punishing Russia for its Ukraine invasion and discuss containing North Korea after a barrage of missile tests.

Beijing and Washington have been working on an in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021.