The man who came to dinner! Joe Biden SHOWS UP for vegetarian G20 feast – after skipping trio of suppers with world leaders over past year
- President Joe Biden made it to the Saturday night dinner at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India
- Biden, 80, has skipped three previous dinners with world leaders
- He appeared to be the last guest to arrive but was greeted warmly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian President Droupadi Murmu
President Joe Biden made it to dinner in New Delhi Saturday night – after skipping a trio of meals with world leaders at summits over the past year.
Indian media captured the president entering the Bharat Mandapam convention center about 30 minutes after the dinner was supposed to begin Saturday evening, after spending the day in meetings at the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
He appeared to be the last guest to arrive.
Biden spent several minutes greeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s President Droupadi Murmu, who was dressed in a sari and served as the dinner’s official host.
The guests, which also included Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, will be served a vegetarian meal that stars the grain millet – an important Indian crop.
President Joe Biden (left) arrives as a dinner Saturday night hosted by India’s President Droupadi Murmu (center) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right). He’s skipped a trio of dinners with world leaders in summits over the past year
President Joe Biden (left) clasps the hands of Indian President Droupadi Murmu (right) as Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) looks on. The president and other dinner guests will be served a vegetarian meal heavily featuring the Indian grain millet
G20 LEADERS’ SUMMIT DINNER MENU
APPETIZER: Paatram – foxtail millet leaf crisps topped with yogurt sphere and spiced chutney
MAIN: Vanavarnam – jackfruit galette served with glazed forest mushrooms, little millet crisp and curry leaf tossed Kerala red rice
INDIAN BREADS: Mumbai Pao – onion seed flavored soft bun
Bakarkhani – cardamom flavored sweet flat bread
DESSERT: Madhurima – cardamom scented Barnyard millet pudding, fig-peach compote and Ambemohar rice crisps
BEVERAGES: Kashmiri Kahwa, filter coffee and Darjeeling tea
Biden, 80, has gotten in the habit of skipping dinners with world leaders.
In July, he missed the leaders’ dinner as the NATO Summit convened Vilnius, Lithuania.
A White House official said Biden RSVPed no for the dinner because he had ‘four full days of official business abroad, including back to back summit meetings and a major speech.’
The president caught some grief for skipping the dinner, which the White House pointed out was a social not a business event, because he had spent time at this Rehoboth Beach house directly before the trip.
Before that, in May, Biden left the a G7 leaders dinner early.
The leaders were gathered on Miyajima Island outside of Hiroshima, known for its iconic ‘floating’ torii gate and domesticated deer population.
The president stumbled as he walked down the stairs of the Itsukushima Shrine as he rushed to greet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The White House said it was the ‘plan’ for Biden to depart the dinner earlier than the other leaders due to the ongoing debt ceiling crisis back home.
Biden also truncated that trip abroad, as he was supposed to travel to Australia for the first time as U.S. president, but headed back to D.C. days early to deal with debt ceiling woes.
At last year’s G20 in Bali, Biden also decided to forego the dinner.
‘It’s not COVID,’ a White House official told DailyMail.com via email at the time. ‘He just spent a full day in meetings and needed to atttend to a few things tonight (nothing urgent!)’
‘He spoke to [Indonesian President Joko] Widodo to send his regrets about missing the dinner and Widodo said it was not an issue and [he] looks forward to seeing him at the mangrove thing tomorrow,’ the official added.
The G20 leaders planted a mangrove tree as part of the scheduled program.
COVID-19 was top of mind because Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen tested positive for the virus just days after meeting with Biden in Phnom Penh.
President Joe Biden spent Saturday participating in the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. At recent previous summits, Biden has skipped the leaders dinner
Biden had tested negative for COVID earlier in the day and was not considered a close contact.
The White House previously said Biden had a cold.
‘It’s been a long day, and he has other matters he needed to attend to,’ an official said.
It was later revealed by CNN that Biden ditched out on dinner because he wanted to prepare for his granddaughter Naomi’s White House wedding, which was held the following November weekend.
In the hours, following, however, Biden was back at work dealing with the missile that had entered Poland, which upped the prospect of the Ukraine war spilling over to a NATO ally, potentially starting a military clash with Russia.
Biden’s advanced age is developing into one of the major challenges his reelection campaign is facing going into 2024.
Last week’s AP-NORC poll that found 77 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, believe Biden is too old to run for reelection.
A Wall Street Journal poll out Monday had similar findings, with 73 percent of voters saying Biden is too old to run again, including two-thirds of Democrats.
In turn, Biden’s stamina on the world stage is under increased scrutiny.
The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer’s new book The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future wrote about the paradox of Biden’s age slowing him down physically, while decades of government experience have been an asset.
Foer noted that it was ‘striking that he took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10 a.m.’
‘His public persona reflected physical decline and time’s dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist,’ the author said. ‘In private, he would occasionally admit that he felt tired.’
But in the same passage, Foer says that the president’s ‘wartime leadership,’ supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, ‘drew on his weathered instincts and his robust self-confidence.’
With Ukraine espeically, Foer wrote, ‘the advantages of having an older president were on display.’
‘He wasn’t just a leader of the coalition, he was the West’s father figure, whom foreign leaders could call for advice and look to for assurance. It was his calming presence and his strategic clarity that helped lead the alliance to such an aggressive stance, which stymied authoritarianism on its front lines,’ the book says.
Source: Read Full Article