WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This weekend's G20 Summit in New Delhi, India concluded with a new member the African Union, an ambitious new plan to create a railway from Europe through the Middle East to India, and an acknowledgement of the atrocities in Ukraine, but no mention of the aggressor.

Russia and China signed off on this final agreement to come out of the summit, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were notably absent.

Earlier today, I spoke with special correspondent Pavni Mittal, who is in New Delhi, covering the G20.

So as I mentioned, there were some announcements about this summit.

But on some of the key issues leading into the summit, it seems that there was not nearly as much progress made.

PAVNI MITTAL: Because there was a lot of debate and discussion about what could actually be achieved at the G20 because he passed all those remember that these forums mostly to build consensus, but follow through has been weak.

So whether it is on issues like climate change, or debt structuring, there was hope that leaders would come together and agree on those.

But even though they have agreed on this, there's very little that countries can do to hold each other accountable.

Now, one of the biggest issues that have sort of dominated this forum has been the war in Ukraine.

You had Western countries, particularly the G7 nations led by the United States and had been pushing for stronger language on the war and against Russia.

But that was countered, of course, by Russia, supported very strongly by China.

And then you had sort of a third block led by India, which has tried to play neutral ground.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So how does President Biden's administration rationalize or justify this statement, which I think by all accounts was weaker than they wished had come out of the summit?

PAVNI MITTAL: Well, officially, the White House has said that this builds on what the U.S. and other G7 nations and basically most other Western nations have said about war, but a lot of times you know, these declarations and this communicate often mirrors the language preferred by the host nation.

And in that way, this is a reflection of what India stand (ph) has been that is the cultural piece, but also not directly criticize Russia.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister actually to do social media and said, quote, this has nothing to be proud of criticizing this joint declaration.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So on one of the more substantive announcements there was this rail and shipping corridor announced linking Europe, the Middle East and India.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that announcement?

PAVNI MITTAL: So for India, this was our chance to sort of advance issues facing the global south and infrastructure project and debt restructuring were very much top agenda.

Now this is being seen as a counter to China.

China's Belt and Road Initiative, which helped China expand its influence geopolitically and financially across the global south.

And what was interesting about this announcement, William, was the fact that President Biden was very much there during the announcement very much that supporting the countries because symbolically for the U.S., this was a chance to reestablish its relationship with Asia Pacific nations and to counter China.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Notably, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were not present for this summit.

Do you have any sense of how their absence affected negotiations?

PAVNI MITTAL: This actually symbolically gave the U.S. a much bigger stage.

You know, President Biden was there, making sure that everybody noticed that the U.S. was there to meet with adversities and partners in short, the U.S. is commitment to the Asia Pacific region.

So in many ways, this was a bigger platform for the United States and sort of made sure that there was no sort of press around President Xi or President Putin, who by the way, would have demanded a lot of interest had there been present.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this was obviously a means to showcase his leadership internationally, but also domestically.

How was his stewardship of the summit received?

PAVNI MITTAL: This was a chance for India to really capitalize on the exelente (ph) has had internationally becoming the most populous nation overtaking the U.K. to becoming the fifth largest economy landing on the moon.

But the way some of the sort of the glitz and the glamour and show around G20 and the presidency, that has been criticized and opposition parties have pointed out that the government has tried to conflate India success with Prime Minister Modi's success.

I mean, you look at the G20 logo, it's the lotus, that is the symbol of his political party.

You cannot walk 100 meters and jelly without seeing a G20 poster with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's face on it.

And so people are saying this is like an ad campaign months ahead of the general election.

And then there's also criticism, William, about the security arrangements, you know, parts of New Delhi, particularly the main district in which the summit was held was sort of shut down.

So no traffic, no shops, no restaurants, but for millions of people in the city who only get to eat if they work that day.

They are daily wage earners.

So they are hawkers.

They drive people's cars.

They deliver food.

This was loss of livelihood.

WILLAM BRANGHAM: All right, special correspondent Pavni Mittal, thank you so much for being here.

PAVNI MITTAL: Thanks for having me.