NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Nov 14, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - US President Joe Biden meets
China's Xi Jinping in Bali on Monday hoping to set "guardrails" for relations
between the world's two largest economies as they vie for international
primacy.

The US-China superpower sitdown, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, will be
the first face-to-face between the pair since Biden took office.

Xi arrived in Bali on Monday afternoon, on only his second overseas trip
since the pandemic, after a visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in September.

Rivalry between the world's top two economies has intensified sharply as
Beijing has become more powerful and more assertive about replacing the US-
led order that has prevailed since World War II.

Biden has said the meeting should establish each country's "red lines", and
the overarching goal will be setting "guardrails" and "clear rules of the
road", a senior White House official told reporters hours before the summit.

"We do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict."

Biden is expected to push China to rein in ally North Korea after a record-
breaking spate of missile tests raised fears Pyongyang will soon carry out
its seventh nuclear test.

Xi and Biden have spoken by videoconference five times since the US leader
took office but the Chinese president's last in-person US summit was with
Donald Trump in 2019.

He arrives buoyed by securing a landmark third term in office, cementing him
as the most powerful Chinese leader for generations.

Biden meanwhile has been bolstered by his Democratic Party's better-than-
expected showing in midterm elections in which they retained control of the
US Senate, although he remains vulnerable in domestic politics.

Biden won't be the only leader meeting Xi, with Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese slated to hold talks Tuesday that will be the first formal
sitdown between leaders of the two countries since 2017.

"There are no preconditions on this discussion. I am looking forward to
having constructive dialogue," he told reporters on arrival in Bali Monday.

- Putin staying away -

The G20 summit opens on Tuesday and comes with food and fuel prices spiking
worldwide, Ukraine mired in conflict and the renewed threat of nuclear war
casting a menacing pall.

There will be one conspicuous absence around the table -- Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

His nine-month-old invasion of Ukraine has made the trip to Bali logistically
difficult and politically fraught, and Putin has instead elected to send
veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Officially, neither the war in Ukraine, nor Putin's dark threats to use
nuclear weapons are on the summit agenda.

But while the ex-KGB man will not be at the summit table, his war will
certainly be on the menu.

Soaring energy and food prices have hit richer and poorer G20 members alike -
- and both are directly fuelled by the conflict.

On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said an end to the conflict was
"a moral imperative and the single best thing we can do for the global
economy".

Russia will be under pressure to extend a deal allowing Ukrainian grain and
fertiliser shipments through the Black Sea when the current agreement expires
on November 19.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will urge the agreement be renewed and
call for "a G20-wide commitment never to weaponise food production and
distribution," Downing Street said.

- 'Never been this complex' -

At a minimum, Biden and his allies would also like to see the G20 make it
clear to Putin that nuclear war is unacceptable.

But a clear statement on the issue from the grouping is likely to be blocked
by a mixture of Russian opposition and Chinese unwillingness to break ranks
with its ally in Moscow or give Washington a win.

The G20 has always been more comfortable discussing finance and economics
than security and Moscow would like it to stay that way.

"We categorically reject the politicisation of the G20," the Russian foreign
ministry said Sunday, offering a taste of what leaders might hear from the
famously unbending Lavrov.

G20 ministerial meetings leading to the summit have failed to agree a final
joint communique and Indonesian officials said Monday it remained a "work in
progress" and a "main goal" for the summit.

"Honestly, I think the global situation has never been this complex,"
Indonesian government minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Sunday.

"If eventually (the G20) leaders do not produce a communique, that's that,
it's OK."