WASHINGTON — For more than two decades, world leaders have gathered at the Group of 20 economic summit to deliver scripted and unscripted remarks behind closed doors and try to work through their differences to reach a consensus on how to best approach pressing global challenges.
In those unseen moments, officials from rival nations with diverging interests have a shot at building relationships and diplomatic cache that every so often results in a consequential agreement that could not have been forged if dignitaries and their aides had not gathered together in one room.
At this weekend’s summit, the changing dynamics of the G20 will be in sharp relief as two of the biggest players, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, skip the previously unmissable event. Their absence has not deterred President Joe Biden – who has been vigorously testing for COVID-19 after his wife contracted the virus – from making the long journey to India for the gathering that the U.S. is insisting has not lost its gusto.
American presidents have often seized on the forum as an opportunity to engage with authoritarian leaders and steer the outcome toward a more U.S-friendly policy agenda. But now, those same leaders are skipping the G20 as they grapple with economic problems at home and turn their attention to building out alternative multinational organizations and partnerships that they have more control over.
“For most of its history, the G20 lived up to its promise, but for it to…
