G20 leaders summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia
An Indonesian soldier walks past a G20 sign at one of the venues of the G20 leaders summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 Image Credit: AP

Bali: World leaders started arriving in Bali, Indonesia on Monday morning ahead of the G20 leaders' summit, which opens on Tuesday.

Chaired by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the 17th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit will welcome heads of state and government officials from the world's leading economies to address major global issues.

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will also be attending the summit. He will be leading a high-level UAE delegation to participate in meetings and engagements throughout the two-day summit, WAM reported. Priority areas of discussion will be energy and food security, climate action, and sustainable development that enables nations and their people to grow and prosper.

Leaders to meet

Having arrived in Bali on Saturday, US President Biden is expected to meet China's Xi Jinping on Monday. Both leaders will attend the opening of the G20 summit on Tuesday.

Biden arrived in Phnom Penh early for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan touched down on Monday, hours after his home city of Istanbul was rocked by an explosion that authorities blamed on Kurdish separatists.

Erdogan said before he departed Turkey that the "vile attack" which killed at least six people in the heart of the city had "a smell of terror".

Elon Musk, Chanpeng Zhao at B20

Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday he was working "at the absolute most amount...from morning til night, seven days a week" when asked about his recent acquisition of Twitter and his leadership of automaker Tesla Inc.

"I have too much work on my plate that is for sure," Musk said by videolink to a business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali. Musk, who is chief executive of both companies, appeared lit by candles, wearing a batik shirt sent by the organisers and said he was speaking from a place that had just lost power.

Dominant cryptocurrency exchange Binance's chief executive Changpeng Zhao called for new but stable and clear regulations for the industry, in light of recent developments and participants "cutting corners".

"We're in a new industry, we've seen in the past week, things go crazy in the industry," Zhao told a gathering of G20 leaders at the summit in Bali. "We do need some regulations, we do need to do this properly, we do need to do this in a stable way." His comments come as crypto industry peers and partners outline steps to deal with the collapse of rival exchange Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday after a week of seeing customers pull assets and Binance abandoned a rescue offer.

India next for G20 presidency

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that he will have bilateral discussions with G20 leaders on issues of global concerns like food and energy security, health and environment among others.

In his statement before departing for Bali to participate in the summit, Modi said, "I will be visiting Bali, Indonesia on 14-16 November 2022, to participate in the 17th G20 Leaders' Summit, to be chaired by Indonesia. I will have extensive discussions with other G20 leaders on key issues of global concern, such as reviving global growth, food and energy security, environment, health, and digital transformation."

Modi added that on the sidelines of the G20 summit, he will meet with leaders of several other participating countries and review the progress in India's bilateral relations with them.

"In a significant moment for our country and citizens, President of Indonesia Joko Widodo will hand over the G20 Presidency to India at the closing ceremony of the Bali Summit. India will officially assume the G20 Presidency from 1st December 2022. I will also extend my personal invitation to G20 Members and other invitees to our G20 Summit next year," he added.

The G20 bloc, which includes a broad array of countries ranging from Brazil to India and Germany, accounts for more than 80 per cent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 60 per cent of its population.