The Duran Podcast - Xi Jinping avoids Biden meeting. BRICS more important than G20

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

Xi Jinping avoids Biden meeting. BRICS more important than G20

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the announcement that Xi Jinping will not be attending the G20 meeting. So you have Russian President Vladimir Putin who's not going to be attending in person. Chinese leader, Xi Jinping will not be attending in person. The G20 is really not that important to them. That's the message that I'm getting the important institution, the important organization, the apported organization is bricks. But, you know, for India, I imagine this is a bit of a disappointment, I guess you could say, because, you know, this is their event.

This is their time hosting the G20. And now you have these two leaders who are just not going to show up at this event. So what's your take on this announcement from China? I think it's a big blow for, for India and I think I will say straight away I think this has not been handled by the Russians and the Chinese especially well I think there is a further factor about Xi Jinping's decision not to go to the G20 which we're going to talk about in a moment which is that he doesn't want to meet Biden he doesn't want to have any kind of personal meeting with Biden at the moment

he wants to avoid Biden in other words because at the moment the Chinese are very very very, very angry with the US for all kinds of reasons, and specifically with Biden himself. But as you're absolutely rightly said, this is a big event. The G20 has been a big event for India, for the Indian government. They've been working incredibly hard

to get this very complicated and difficult summit up and running. And I think that they are now, frankly, shocked that two of the most important visitors aren't coming. Now, I think this explains, by the way, Putin's decision not to go, because I was surprised that he decided that he wouldn't go, because it didn't make a huge amount of sense to me that he wouldn't go. I mean, there's no question about Putin being arrested in India. I mean, you know, the ICC warrant has no traction there. India is not a member of the Rome Statute. It's

it's inconceivable that the Indians would want to arrest Putin. And Putin himself is, of course, personal friends, very close personal friends with Modi. And interestingly, after Putin's announcement, there was this telephone conversation between Putin and Modi. And clearly, the Russians, Putin himself, was explaining the decision trying to, you know, calm and, you know, ease Indian concerns and explain that this wasn't done in any way as any kind of insult or snub to India. I think what clearly has happened is that the Chinese took a decision that Xi Jinping would not go to the G20. And the Chinese didn't want to be doing that by themselves. so they tell the Russians

Xi Jinping is not going we don't want you to go either it gives us diplomatic cover if you don't go and Putin who at the moment has to remain on good terms with the Chinese with Xi Jinping because of the economic

relations he took the first step by announcing that he wasn't going so I think that that explains Putin's decision a difficult decision for Putin. Not so much of a difficult decision for Xi Jinping, by the way. Now, why do the Chinese not want to go? The Chinese, and to some extent the Russians, they are losing interest in the G20.

I think that the G20, in fact, is gradually becoming an irrelevance. The G20 was created in the heyday of globalization at a time where the United States was the dominant hyperpower, which everybody was looking at, you know, everybody was eager and following what the United States was going to do. And that period has passed. So it is proving more and more difficult for countries like China and the United States that the G20 states altogether. to come to any kind of agreement about anything within this particular format. And what's happening is that you have the G7, which is the United States and its friends, and you're having the bricks, which is now increasingly being created as the alternative to the G7.

And that's where the decisions are going to be made. So the Chinese are saying, let's forget about ultimately G20. It really isn't important anymore. The Russians are saying the same thing. They say let's focus instead on building up the bricks. We've made this big breakthrough in the meeting at Johannesburg. Xi Jinping and Modi had a constructive and friendly meeting in Johannesburg. Xi Jinping did lots of diplomacy with all kinds of leaders and all kinds of countries.

countries, let's focus instead on building that up. Let's forget about the G20 and move on and create an institution around the bricks, of which, of course, India itself is a part which is more useful and relevant to us and to ourselves. And I think that's probably what they're telling the Indians. And I suggested yesterday in my programme that probably eventually there will be a secretariat created for the bricks and conceivably why not it might be located in India perhaps in Delhi itself yeah what is the importance of the G20 anymore I mean I can't think of anything of significance that has come out of the G20 over the last few years the G20 is has lost its relevance it is disintegrating and this step this decision by Csci

to stay away is, in my opinion, the point of no return for the G20. I mean, in a few years' time, it won't exist. This is my own personal view. Now, because the energy is going to move to the bricks, and of course there'll still be the G7 there. But that doesn't mean that some countries aren't interested in the G20. Now, putting aside the fact that India was the host, so they were concerned about setting up this meeting in Delhi, having it succeed.

And apparently it was proving incredibly difficult because there was no agreement. It was impossible to negotiate agreements on joint statements. I mean, there is so much divergence now between the great powers that it was impossible to agree to anything there. So the other thing, though, that the other party that was, wanted to use the G20, specifically this summit meeting, was the United States. And they wanted to use the G20 in order to set up some kind of summit meeting between Biden and Xi Jinping. The US for months now has been trying to patch up not relations with China, which are by the way continuing to deteriorate, but an appearance of a dialogue with China. And the Chinese have had a succession of

meetings, visits, they've had Tony Blinken go to Beijing, they've had Janagh Yellen go to Beijing, James Cleverly, the British Foreign Secretary, has just been in Beijing. They've been, have all of these people coming, this whole troop of people coming to Beijing, ultimately with the intention of getting some kind of a meeting between Xi Jinping and Biden organized. The Chinese don't want to do that. Xi Jinping doesn't get on with Biden. I think this is widely understood and widely acknowledged. He doesn't trust Biden. He's actually said to Biden in person over the course of one of the virtual meetings that they had that Biden tells him one thing and then the administration goes ahead and does something completely different. So Xi Jinping does. So Xi Jinping does,

He doesn't want to meet with Biden at this time. He does not want to be maneuvered into effectively a summit meeting with Biden in Delhi through his attendance of the G20. And that's another reason why he is not going. And for the US, this is a major disappointment because they've been trying to set up this meeting with Xi Jinping. Because the US, the administration says that they will talk to China about issues that are of mutual interest, but at the same time, the United States reserves the right to do whatever it likes on anything that it wants. And they've wanted to keep this impossible position alive. And the Chinese are saying, no, you can't.

You have to talk with us about everything. There have to be agreements on all topics. if you're going to stick with this position where you talk with us on things you want but won't talk with us on things you don't want, then we're not meeting with you at all and that's the signal that Xi Jinping has given to Biden by staying away.

It almost seems like the G20 is disintegrating not so much because of Bricks, but because of Biden. Yes. No one wants to deal with Biden. No, no one wants to see him, no one wants to talk to him, outside of, obviously outside of the vassal states of Europe, of the Collegiate West. But everyone else just doesn't want the guy around.

And that's, you know, it's kind of like how life is. You know, you have an organization or a club. And, you know, there's a certain time when, a certain time period, when everyone gets along and all of a sudden, someone new comes along and enters the club. and no one likes the guy. And, you know, the club of the organization, you know, falls apart. I mean, any club, a fraternity, a book club, whatever, sports team, whatever it is. You know, it's kind of like the picture that I'm painting in my head, you know, Biden comes along and everyone's like, you know, we have this other organization called bricks. And I don't like this guy.

Do you like this guy? No, I don't like this guy either. You know, let's just not go. You know what I mean? It's maybe it's not so much bricks. Maybe it's Biden. That's destroying the G20. This is exactly right. And can I just say, I mean, it is about Bricks because one of the reasons why Bricks is taking off in the way that it is, is precisely because people don't trust and like Biden.

At the end of the day, they have to meet, they have to come to some kind of agreements with each other. And they have to get around Biden in some ways. So, of course, if they can't get around him by within the original. What option do they have? They have to set up a new club, which is what the Bricks is. If you think about it, I mean, that's why this is happening in the way that it is. And why ultimately is Xi Jinping staying away from the G20 meeting? Why is Putin staying away from the G20 meeting? It's again the same reason, because they don't want to meet with Biden. Well, Putin wouldn't meet with Biden anyway, because Biden wouldn't want to meet him. But Xi Jinping doesn't. doesn't want to meet Biden. And he is staying away from the bricks. And there's been some really very interesting revelations now coming out of Saudi Arabia. Remember the Jeddah Summit?

And remember we were talking about that? Well, Lavrov has now discussed. And by the way, he will have been given by the Saudis, the green light to discuss more about what actually happened at the Jeda Summit. Because apparently the Saudis were going around telling him. everybody at the Jetta summit, this thing doesn't make any kind of sense. We can only hold this meeting if the Russians are here. We have to have the Russians participating in this process. So they hosted this summer because they were asked to,

and because it was convenient to MBS to do it. But already MBS and his people are going around saying, look, this is completely ridiculous. If we're going to have another summit like this, we have to have the Russians present. And of course, again, that is in effect another way of saying, well, what Biden is trying to do is something which is completely unacceptable to us. We're having to work around him too. So everybody is trying to find ways to work around this particular president. By the way, talking about Biden, I noticed that the economist,

In Britain, you know, the arch neoliberal newspaper, fervid supporter of globalization, American exceptionalism, all of that. They're now also saying that Biden is a problem that people in the United States, the American electorate doesn't like him, and that he is now becoming a problem for the Democrats as well. So nobody likes him.

No one likes the guy, yeah, except for the leaders of Europe. They're the only ones, of the EU. The only people in the world that like Biden. Anyway, all right, the durad. Dotlocals.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, Bitchie, Telegrab, Rock Finn, and Twitter, and go to the Darrad shop, 10% off. Use the code. Good day. Take care.