US President Joe Biden is joining other leaders of the Group of 20 nations for their upcoming summit in India. He left for New Delhi on Thursday.

Biden will first sit down with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Then, on Saturday, they will take part in the full summit.

The Group of 20 meeting provides a place for the heads of industrialized and developing economies to coordinate on issues like trade, energy and climate change. This year, however, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have decided not to attend.

Biden hopes to take the opportunity to work with "like-minded partners." He wants to use the summit to reshape development banks.

White House officials say China's overseas lending and infrastructure projects in the Belt and Road Initiative are "coercive and unsustainable." They say the World Bank serves as a "credible alternative."

They add that they want to ensure "high-leverage solutions" to the challenges facing the Global South.

On Sunday, Biden will move on to Vietnam, a country that has strong trade relations with China. He will meet with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to build on a "growing network" of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.