Welcome to this week’s Great Game! Now, I know that we have been quite critical of the U.S. Administration and Joe Biden in particular. While it’s still fair to have some concerns about the well-being of the Commander-in-Chief, I think it’s time to heap some praise on his team and administration for their foreign policy work over the past months. This week was particularly bright for U.S. interests – let’s go over events one by one – and finish up with how Kim Kardashian might be the most popular woman in Iran!

Biden taking W’s in New Delhi

As mentioned last week, the big lithmus test of the Indian G20 presidency would be their ability to get any agreed communique out of the meeting with both Russia and China very reluctant to agree on any wording or initiatives. And even if the final document was quite generic and vague, we must count is as a major win for Indian PM Narendra Modi to get Russia and the U.S. to sign the same piece of paper. Reports suggest that Indonesia and Brazil were key to this success, which only underlines the position of Global South countries in this day and age.

Modi also managed to get the accession of the African Union into G20 in order as well as a major U.S.-sponsored “trade corridor” from India through the Middle East into Europe and the Atlantic, which was announced at the G20 summit. The transport corridor is both a key part in the U.S. efforts to bind Israel and Saudi Arabia together and to create a framework for global strategic investments in infrastructure other than military installations and air strips. It’s hard not to see the transport corridor as a direct competitor to the much-debated Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, although much smaller in size so far.

And speaking of the Belt and Road Initiative – the weekend also saw Italian PM Giorgia Meloni distance herself from prior Italian plans to engage with the Chinese megaproject. Italy was the only major Western country to sign up for the Belt and Road Initiative, which was a huge thorn in the eye for the U.S., so it’s clear that a lot of back-channeling has been going on here. And in that process, it’s of course key that the U.S. now has its own trade coriddor project as an alternative.

All in all, President Biden left New Delhi with a bunch of wins, not least