President Joe Biden has invited his counterparts Xi Jinping of China and Russia’s Vladimir Putin to a virtual climate summit he is hosting in April, the White House announced on Friday.
In all, 40 world leaders including PM Narendra Modi have been asked to attend the two-day meeting meant to mark Washington’s return to the front lines of the fight against man-made climate change, after former president Donald Trump disengaged from the process.
Besides PM Modi, other leaders invited for the summit include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“They know they’re invited,” Biden said of Xi and Putin. “But I haven’t spoken to either one of them yet.”
The start of the summit on April 22 coincides with Earth…