live from washington, this is a bbc news special report on the 620 summit in delhi. world leaders descend on the indian capital for the high—level summit. on the agenda — global food security, climate change, trade and the war in ukraine. but with two notable no—shows, russian president vladimir putin and chinese president xi jinping, the war in ukraine looms large. hello i'm carl nasman. presidents and prime ministers from around the world are gathering in delhi, india, for this year's 620 summit. they're set to tackle sustainability, economic growth and climate change after a year of dangerous and destructive weather across the globe. presidentjoe biden and british prime minister rishi sunak touched down earlier —

and here's president tayyip erdogan of turkey arriving just a short time ago. but the absence of both russian president vladimir putin and chinese president xi jinping highlights the rising tensions over russia and its war in ukraine at this year's gathering. both leaders sent their foreign ministers in their place. it's the first time xi has missed the gathering. the event will highlight india prime minister narendra modi's attempt as host to promote the country as a major global power, and himself as dominant world leader ahead of a crucial election next year. we're looking at why the 620 gathering is so important and how the decisions made in delhi this weekend can impact you and the rest of the world. but first, what is the 620? the group of 20 is a bloc of the world's 20 largest economies that was formed two years after the 1997 asian financial crisis in response to thailand devaluing its currency and the resulting deep recession in much of east asia.

originally, the 620 was a forum for the finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss global economic and financial issues but by 2008, heads of state and government began meeting to address the 2007 financial crisis. and in 2009, the 620 summit became an annual forum focused notjust on economic issues but sustainable development, health, environment and anti—corruption. the 620 is comprised of 19 countries and the european union and together, its member nations account for an estimated 86% of the world's gross domestic product and two—thirds of its population. but this year, russia's war in ukraine looms over the summit and may overshadow the agenda. russia and china are already thought to have disputed the wording of a draft statement criticising russia's invasion. and india's economy has become ever more intertwined with russia's since the war started because india is a major importer

of russian oil and weapons. it's believed 85% of india's weaponry is supplied by russia, according to some estimates. and then there's the glaring absence of russian president vladimir putin, who has not said why he is skipping the gathering. although he does face an arrest warrant from the international criminal court related to his invasion of ukraine, india is not a signatory to the statue that would require them to arrest the leader. modi said he spoke with putin by phone last week. india is looking to put aside all these disagreements over ukraine, hoping they won't derail concerns of the global south and developing countries. 0ur correspondent samira hussain has more. prime minister rishi sunak landed in india. he was greeted by indian dignitaries and dancers. but the colourful arrival won't mask the thorny issues at play. mr sunak reiterated his commitment to supporting the most vulnerable but also made it clear that the uk

will support ukraine. one of the priorities i have being here is to highlight the impact of russia's war on millions of vulnerable people round the world, and that's the impact of food prices. recently, russia has pulled out of something called the black sea 6rain initiative, which allowed wheat and other food to leave ukraine. ukraine produces an enormous amount of the world's food. it goes to dozens of the most vulnerable countries. despite india's best efforts to frame the 620 conversations around issues that affect the global south, russia's invasion remains front and centre. earlier, us treasury secretary janet yellen, who was also in delhi, said america will continue with financial support. we also remain committed to support for ukraine and recently put forward a supplementalfunding request. there's been bipartisan support for this funding to date and it's critical that we continue to provide timely economic assistance.

the west is pushing ukraine as an issue, putting this year's host of the global summit in a challenging position — india buys weapons and oilfrom russia but is also becoming more aligned with the us. will ukraine derail the talks? issues of conflict and war have an impact on growth and development, so food, fuel and fertiliser get impacted. that issue has been discussed at great length and we will talk about it once the leaders�* summit is over. but meticulous planning may not be enough to get world leaders to agree. divisions over russia's war in ukraine may derail progress on issues india wants to focus on.

for more on the issue of ukraine at the 620, my colleague caitriona perry spoke with illinois congressman mike quigley, who chairs the congressional ukraine caucus. president biden — speaking of allies — is in india at the 620 summit, forming an alliance with india to counter the might of china. what do you expect him to do to try and rally further international support for the war in ukraine? you know, i think president biden probably deserves as much crescent — credit as anyone outside of ukraine for the war moving forward successfully so far. i mean, he has unified the west, so this is enough to continue that. i'd like to see india do more, and particularly have india help freeze out and hurt russia economically for, you know, the war in ukraine, but then continuing to expand it to the groups outside of nato, i think, is foremost on his mind and critically important to accomplish right

now. do you expect to see some sort of agreement on that come out of the 620? we were crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. i'd like to think they understand just how important this is. putin's aims aren't just towards ukraine — it's been an extreme effort beyond that so, you know, those agreements that are taking place, that have taken place with the expansion of brics is of concern — i'd like like to think this isn't just us—versus—them mentality — but i think reaching out to entities and countries like india that have agreements with china and russia would help unify our relationships with them and, frankly, keep them from — even once removed — helping russia in this effort. plenty of issues on the table. to dive deeper into all of this, i spoke to alexandra sharp, world brief writer for foreign policy,

and candace rondeaux, senior director for the future frontlines program. welcome to you both. and alexandra, ijust want to start with you because you wrote an article for foreign policy titled biden seeks to woo the global south away from china at the 620. how do you think president biden to go about that and how receptive do you think these developing countries might be? well, like you said, biden�*s primary goal here is to assert its dominance amongst the 620 and amongst specifically global south nations. it's trying to do that by countering chinese influence in the region. already, the biden administration has promised millions of dollars in helping developing nations restructure its debt and achieve further debt forgiveness. however, looking at china, china has already invested millions more than that in its belt and road initiative in countries across latin america and across africa,

so the likelihood of these global south nations taking the united states�*s promises to heart is still up in the air, especially because it's unclear which nation might be the stronger security and economic partner. and candace rondeaux, what do you think? are these promises from the us enough to tempt a few developing nations away from china and over to president biden�*s side? well, a lot of global south nations, particularly in places like africa, where i think you see an emerging contest between china, russia, the united states, they're all kind of in wait—and—see mode and actually, many of them are engaged in an extreme conflict. we've seen in niger and, of course, more recently gabon and burkina faso the outbreak of conflict there and we see that russia has asserted itself in these places. at the same time, we also know that china has been investing in the global south for years, as alexandra pointed out.

at the end of the day, it does come down to where the rubber meets the road. the biden administration's effort, for instance, to potentially build a railway across the gulf states from india, it could be good. but we've seen this kind of corridor—building diplomacy before and sometimes, it's just sort of disintegrated before the next administration comes into office or even as a new administration comes into office, so it's a tricky situation for biden to be a kind of convincing partner in this situation. and candace, just sticking with you for a moment, i want to talk about the war in ukraine. we heard the war mentioned many times in that introduction. it already seems to be a big sticking point at the 620. we may not even see a unified statement on the conflict. what kind of signal would it send if the leaders of the 620 cannot agree on some sort of condemnation of the conflict?

this is a challenge. i mean, i think we may have come — with the war in ukraine, its acceleration, its intensification, we're kind of looking the end of the joint comminuqye era in diplomacy and multilateralism has been deeply wounded by the schisms that have arisen outside of this war and it has tested relationships even within nato, as we know — turkey, finland, you know, all of those machinations have been extremely problematic — but i thinkjust from a purely economic aspect, these sort of social aspects that the 620 covers, the biggest challenge has been, of course, the grain deal and the black sea grain initiative and its breakdown in recent months as vladimir putin has demanded more and more access to markets, despite the fact that there are these sanctions that have been imposed. i don't see any way out, even in a situation where you might get some sort of consensus out of this 620 summit. still, the war is going

on and putin shows no signs of letting up and, frankly, ukrainians and president zelensky have shown that they, too, are very committed to pushing forward, so this may be a summit of standstill more than a summit of movement and action. well, alexandra, what do you think? i mean, is this a wounded 620? is there any way forward because, as we were hearing there, there are some extreme effects and the fallout of not only the war but also the abandonment by russia of this grain deal. i think the 620 going in was already fractionalising and its members were hoping to show that it could diversify without obviously losing its dominance, losing its strength. i think russia pulling out of the black sea 6rain deal definitely hindered the 620's abilities to have economic success going forward, to have sort of an economic heft to it.

you know, the united states, as you mentioned earlier in the broadcast, is already putting india in a pretty tight spot. india is looking at developing stronger ties with washington, while at the same time receiving weapons and oil from russia whilejoining forces into a stronger relationship with china and its brics alliance. by this summit, going into it, already had a lot of dissension within its ranks. having the ukraine summit just adds to that. having india hosting, i think, also adds to that. just hopping back to you now quickly, candace, we've heard there that the headlines already are about who is not attending — vladimir putin not in attendance, xijinping will be missing this one for the first time in his career as the leader of china. what do you think that says about the way those two leaders view these 620 meetings? look, we all have to ask ourselves what does it mean when the country that represents the world's largest landmass, russia, and the country that represents the second largest economy, china, pull away from multilateral engagement?

it really is, i think, a sign of the times. we see this in the un, we see this in other venues where cooperation is needed. it's an extremely worrying trend and i think there's really a lot of work to be done to try and bring folks back to the table. however, it'sjust not possible while we have a situation where one of the leading sort of heads of state, vladimir putin, is now under indictment in the icc. he can't travel and we should not have expected him to come to delhi — it would've been very dangerous for him, it would've put india in a very difficult position. right. and i am certain that there would've been back channel talks about that where modi sort of cautioned him against doing so. it will definitely be an interesting weekend at the 620 summit. candace rondeaux, senior directorfor the future frontlines program, alexandra sharp, world brief writer at foreign policy, thank you so much to you both.

thank you. the glaring absence of xi and putin may leave an opening for president biden, who is hoping to persuade other leaders to align with him on matters including ukraine and curbing china's dominance in the indo—pacific region. mr biden�*s first order of business, a bilateral meeting with mr modi that lasted nearly an hour. the two leaders discussed india's recent moon landing and investments in indian technology. they released a joint promise to deepen their relationship saying it was "based on trust and mutual understanding." the white house says it still has concerns about mr modi's controversial human rights record, but those concerns appear to be on the backburner as the us looks to counter china's reach in the region. the summit represents an important showcase for mr modi amid criticism about tightening controls on press freedom and opposition voices in india. 0ur correspondent yogita limaye has more on india's perspective.

ahead of the 620 summit, we saw presidentjoe biden meeting with indian prime minister narendra modi and soon after that meeting, the trade dispute between the two countries was resolved, and both countries saying we are reallyjust furthering the discussions that we've had when prime minister narendra modi went on a state visit to the us injune. of course, during the 620 summit, one of the big issues on the agenda — and what's going to overshadow the summit, of course — is the war in ukraine. i think india will be hoping that irrespective of the deep differences between countries on that, irrespective of the fact that russian president vladimir putin is not attending, chinese president xi jinping is not attending, that there will be some joint form of wording that will be agreed to which can be released at the end of the summit. and i think what india is also hoping for is that perhaps, the focus can be on other issues, like climate change, like a global framework for cryptocurrencies. what india has done quite successfully is that it's

turned what's an annual summit and a presidency that it got because of rotation into this mega event, where it's trying to showcase its strength to the world and it's trying to tell the world that we can be the voice of the developing world. prime minister narendra modi very — advocating very strongly for the african union to be included in the 620, so that this grouping can be more representative and fair. as far as the domestic audience in india is concerned, we are going into an election year here, and i think what his government, what his party are trying to say to voters is that all of these important leaders coming to india, the country's prominence globally is growing and it is our government that has done that. of course, what we've seen in delhi is the spectacular venue but what we've also seen is impoverished areas, slums being destroyed or being hidden from view, the disparity that exists in india's cities being hidden from view, and so, people are saying what's the summit actually really going to get for us on the ground once these meetings are over?

we've also heard prime minister narendra modi repeatedly refer to india as "the mother of democracy" and there are many people who are asking questions about that phrasing because we — what we are seeing in india is increasing restrictions on press freedom. yogita limaye there. well on saturday, the british prime minister rishi sunak will also meet with narendra modi. the meeting is significant, notjust because both heads of government are hindu, but because the uk is seeking a majorfree trade agreement with india. india's economy is growing rapidly, let's take a look at the transformation. it was the 11th largest economy 18 years ago, but it's been rising in the ranks ever since. within the last year, it overtook the uk to become the fifth largest economy. experts predict that by the end of the decade it will climb the ladder even fruther, becoming the third largest economy in the world by 2030. well, my colleague christian fraser is on the ground in delhi,

and has been speaking with journalist jyoti malhotra. this is an invaluable opportunity for india to lead on the world stage — does it matter that xi jinping is here, can you have a final communique without the chinese president signing off on it? yes, the premier is coming, li qiang is coming, just like putin is sending sergei lavrov, the russian foreign minister. you can have a communique but the question is not about who is going to sign off on the communique but what the communique contains. so there is a big paragraph on ukraine. as you know in the bali summit last year in indonesia, it was paragraph 3 that was the contentious paragraph which says that, i believe the paragraph said "we agree to disagree", so the russians and the chinese did not want any criticism on the ukrainian invasion, and everybody else did. but there was some sort of a compromise.

this time around, i think the russians are much more hardline on that... mr modi said he doesn't think this is the forum to discuss global disputes. mr modi is right, why should the 620 summit, which came into being in 1999 and later after the 2008 financial crisis — the 620 is an economic forum. earlier i spoke to bruce jones, who's a senior fellow at the brookings institution's center for east asia policy, on the us' relations with india and more. we've already been speaking a bit about presidentjoe biden and indian prime minister narendra modi and this meeting before the summit. it's worth asking, how much do you think the president is willing to look past india's and modi's somewhat questionable human rights record to try to further his agenda and the agenda between the two countries? thankyou for having me on.

the short answer is completely — building a strong relationship with india is a core part ofjoe biden�*s foreign policy. it is at the core of the ambition to constrain chinese power in asia, the growing network of alliances and partnerships and securing of political terms across asia. it is an important part of reaching beyond the western court to the non—western middle powers, and the global south, and it is an important location increasingly for american companies looking to find alternatives to chinese supply. it is kind of a poison pill — and there are all sorts of reasons why india is important to the us strategically. so quite frankly the administration is not particularly focused on the internal democratic questions and human rights questions. they get raised, they are there, but they are minor compared to the big strategic picture. looking at china now and as we mentioned, president xijinping has never

missed the annual group of 20 gathering — i think he would actually be the first chinese leader ever not to attend. what do you think is behind his decision to skip this one, and often sometimes there is even some symbolism in what china does? i imagine two reasons. people have argued that it is partly because of the economic difficulties at home, i'm not really convinced by that. i think there are probably two reasons. first, there are a number of issues on the table where china would really be in a minority at the 620. 0n debt relief, on food security, on their fulsome support from russia on ukraine, so xi would come in to, at least be at risk of coming into significant criticism and pressure at the 620 to shift his position on a number of these issues, and that would not be comfortable for him, i think he would want to avoid that. seconds, relations with india are pretty tense, ongoing

tensions along the border, issues of chinese penetration of indian cyber, the new map that china published which shows china claiming large swaths of indian territory in the north, a whole host of reasons why the relationship is tense. so xi is avoiding tension and avoiding pressure while feeling perfectly comfortable to not help hand india a kind of big moment on the global stage. it weakens the indian 620 for xi not to be there. it limits what it can get done and so i think that is part of the difficulties in that relationship, i am sure contributed to his decision not to travel. just to look ahead briefly now, president biden is going to be visiting vietnam after the 620, they will be signing a new strategic partnership between vietnam and the us. what do you make of this recent push that we have seen by biden into the region,

he was recently deepening ties with both south korea and japan? i would rather say the region is pulling the us back in. even compared to five years ago. all of china's neighbours are increasingly nervous about the direction of chinese policy and extremely rapid military buildup, threatening posturing vis a vis taiwan, pressure on the economic front, diplomatic pressure, so all these countries including vietnam, korea, japan, etc, are keen intensification of american diplomacy, the security posture. they would love to see a trade deal with the united states, they're not going to get that, but the region is very keen to have more america to balance the more china that they are confronted with. 0bama tried to strengthen ties in asia, trump

in his own way strengthened some ties in asia — biden is trying to do it is a response to the phenomenon of countries seeking to build a relationship with the united states. there is still some hedging, but there is a great deal of interest in the region. biden i think deserves credit for taking advantage of that, particularly in terms of the japan—korea rapprochement that he and his team orchestrated. but it is really the region driving this more than it is the united states. brucejones, senior fellow at the brookings center for east asia policy, thank you so much. plenty of issues on the table as the 620 summit kicks off. but for now, that's all for our special report. stay with us here on bbc news as we bring you all the developments from delhi. we are expecting more leaders including the german chancellor and the saudi crown prince to arrive shortly. more news of the top of the hour, stay with us on bbc news.

hi there. for many, this weekend is going to be hot and humid again, especially for england and wales, with temperatures only slowly coming down across scotland and northern ireland. and as the cooler air starts to invade in there, we're likely to see increasing chance of thundery downpours, some of which could be quite heavy in places. certainly england and wales on sunday. now we've had some cloud drifting up from the south as we move into the early part of saturday, some mist and low cloud around some coasts of south—west england and wales. and it's here where we could see some showers or some thunderstorms, same too, across the north and the west of scotland. but elsewhere, it's a dry and a clear night. and again, another very warm and muggy one to start saturday morning with temperatures no lower than around 18 or 19 in one or two spots. so it's a very warm start to saturday, pretty much from the word go. we'll have sunshine around, but well, this weather front will be pushing into the north—west of scotland, bringing thicker cloud breeze, outbreaks of rain, a few showers elsewhere. and there will be

some scattered thundery showers developing across england and wales as we see temperatures peak at around 32 or 33 degrees in the south—east. so this could be the hottest day of the heatwave. but these showers and thunderstorms, although well scattered, could be pretty intense if you catch one and there's a chance of some localised flooding as well. but most places will be dry to take us into saturday evening. we could see further clusters of showers and thunderstorms running up from the south. again, it's going to be a warm and a muggy night, especially so for england and wales with temperatures beginning to come down across the north—west. now the great north run on sunday across north—east england looks pretty decent actually, although there will be some rain around. some of it could be thundery. these temperatures will be pretty comfortable for running in, but we could start off with some thundery rain in the morning and then into the afternoon. heavy showers could develop with a bit of sunshine in between. but sunday is another warm and humid one for england and wales, with a scattering of thunderstorms developing into the afternoon. temperatures again up to 30 degrees in the south—east, but you'll notice the low 20s

for scotland and northern ireland. so things are turning cooler and the trend as we head into next week is for this cooler, fresher, less humid air to spread southwards across the country. and that'll introduce north—westerly winds and also plenty of showers, particularly in the north and the west. it'll be much cooler by day, much fresher at night, but still some good spells of sunshine across the south.

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