Updated at 5:45 P.M. E.D.T.

Prime Minister Modi of India and his top aides say they are so excited about the G20 summit this weekend at New Delhi that  the absence of the leaders of their northern neighbor, China, and  their long-time friend, Russia, seems of secondary importance.

Yet just as Mr. Modi prepares for the big day, news is coursing through Washington that, the AP reports, the North Korean party boss, Kim Jong-un may soon travel to Russia to parley with President Putin. The AP quotes an anonymous American official. 

The news comes as the Kremlin is scrambling to acquire military equipment for use in its war in Ukraine. The official is quoted by the AP as saying that America expects Mr. Kim will make the trip within the month. The official said the U.S. isn’t sure where or when the meeting would take place, but the Pacific port city of Vladivostok would be a likely possibility given its relative proximity to North Korea.

A National Security Council spokeswoman, Adrienne Watson, is reported by the AP to have noted Monday that Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, traveled to Pyongyang last month and tried to persuade North Korea to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.

Ms. Watson added that America is urging North Korea “to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.” The New York Times first reported that Mr. Kim planned to meet with Mr. Putin in Russia this month.

Back at New Delhi, India’s foreign minister is apparently undisturbed by this development. “We have treated the G20 presidency not as an event but as a national celebration,” said the minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Delhi’s mayor, Shelly Oberoi, promised the city would put on its shiniest face, vowing “to keep the city clean” — not easy considering images of crowded slums and beggars on the sidewalks.“

“Delhi turns into city of joy” headlined the Times of India.  “Fountains at key locations to light up your mood.”

Just to be sure everyone makes it safely through the Indian capital’s clogged streets, the paper said, cutouts of ferocious langur monkeys will line the route to scare off smaller monkeys that might pester the visitors as they’re driven around in 450 luxury cars hired for the occasion.

The fuss over the summit, to public appearances, takes precedence over the news that President Xi is reportedly sending his premier to lead the Chinese delegation after President Putin had already said he couldn’t make it.

Messrs. Xi and Modi just talked at the recent Johannesburg confab of Brics countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — and may not have much more to say about harassment by Chinese troops at India’s northernmost Himalayan frontier and in the northeast, too. The Indians can be sure China’s premier, Li Qiang, will echo Mr. Xi’s words.

President Biden, though, was “disappointed” about the missed opportunity to confer with the leader of a huge country with which America is at odds. Could it be that Mr. Xi doesn’t want to have it out with Mr. Biden in the wake of the trilateral summit at Camp David at which Mr. Biden, Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and President Yoon of Korea seemed to have formed what Beijing sees as an anti-China alliance?

Whatever the real reason for Mr. Xi’s absence, Mr. Biden vowed he would “get to see him” — just when and where was left unstated.

The conference, though, will give Mr. Biden plenty of chances to confer one-on-one with the leaders of more than 20 other countries as they converge on New Delhi before the sessions Saturday and Sunday. The G20 to appearances is all about resolving economic problems, but conversations are bound to touch on the war in Ukraine and Chinese aerial and naval harassment around Taiwan.

For Mr. Biden, his most meaningful mini-summit before the G20 opens is likely to be with Mr. Modi. Mr. Biden arrives Thursday at New Delhi — two days before the conference — and sees Mr. Modi on Friday.

Their conversation will focus on India’s role in the Quad — a non-military grouping that includes Australia and Japan as well as America – and also the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework of a dozen countries: Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“The U.S.-led economic engagement is a salient attempt to allow countries to decouple from Chinese over-dependence,” the head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, Jagannath Panda, said. The goal is “to ultimately strengthen the existing free and open rules-based global order, which China has been targeting to upend, and re-establish U.S. dominance.” 

Mr. Modi is not likely to abandon India’s historic policy of nonalignment, and he is sure to avoid any gestures or comments that might worsen fragile ties with China. He will be equally anxious not to offend Russia, by far India’s biggest supplier of arms, including Sukhoi and MiG fighter planes. 

America’s relations with India, though, have been steadily improving, as seen in Mr. Modi’s visit in June to New York and Washington, where he and Mr. Biden met three times. For Mr. Biden, as diplomatic observers have often said, the challenge is to induce Mr. Modi to be “neutral” on the side of America. 

Ideally, Mr. Modi, as the G20 host, would like to see the talkfest wind up with a high-sounding statement of principles to which all would agree. That, though, will not be easy. “Xi’s absence deepens India-China chill,” the Indian Express said in a headline, putting a “question mark on G20 consensus.”