Biden departs for Rome to meet Pope and G20 leaders

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden departed for Rome Thursday for the president's first Group of 20 summit since being sworn-in.   

The White House has given scant details on who Biden will meet with on the sidelines of the weekend summit, but two meetings won't happen for sure - both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be no-shows at the conference. 

On Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he wasn't sure who was coming to Italy to represent Saudi Arabia either, as U.S. gas prices spike.

'My understanding right now is that the prince is not attending the G20,' Sullivan said on board Air Force One Thursday, when asked about Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud' attendance.  

Additionally, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López isn't attending, and the attendance of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida isn't likely, as there are lower house elections in the country on Sunday.  

So far, the only bilateral meetings that have been announced will take place Friday, ahead of the main sessions that will take place in the so-called 'cloud,' Rome's La Nuvola New Congress Center. 

After spending time with Pope Francis on Friday, Biden will meet with Italy's President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi, as they represent the host country. 

Biden will have a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday as well. 

That meeting will be the first face-to-face interaction since the French were blindsided by the Australians pulling out of a submarine deal to join a pact with the U.S. and the U.K.

The French were so insulted by the secret deal that they pulled ambassadors from both Australia and the United States.   

After one phone call with Biden, Macron sent U.S. Amb. Philippe Étienne back to Washington, D.C. 

The two leaders spoke again on the phone last week. 

Biden is trying to shore up relations with Europe, while Xi and Putin's absence is being interpreted by some as a snub. 

'If China doesn't come to Rome, if Russia - which has a lot of energy to sell to Europe - doesn't join the G20, I think that this G20 will be a confirmation of European fragility from the energetic point of view,' said Massimo Franco, an international affairs columnist for Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, to The Associated Press. 

Sullivan said Xi and Putin were skipping 'largely, it seems, due to COVID-19.' 

'President Xi has chosen not to attend these summits. He's chosen not to leave China at all in calendar year 2021 to see any leader. That's, of course, his choice,' Biden's national security adviser added. 

Sullivan said he and his Chinese counterpart are working to plan a virtual summit for Biden and Xi before the end of the year. 

'The U.S. and Europe will be there, and they'll be there energized and united at both the G20 and COP26, driving the agenda, shaping the agenda as it relates to these significant international issues,' Sullivan said.  

The G20 is also being dwarfed by the United Nations' COP26 climate summit, which is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland directly afterward. 

Biden will travel there too - and will be joined by former President Barack Obama, who was president when the U.S. originally signed onto the Paris climate accord. 

Former President Donald Trump then pulled the U.S. out of the climate deal. 

Reporters have asked press secretary Jen Psaki for weeks how Biden will show the U.S. is serious about combatting climate change when the reconciliation bill that contains climate change provisions is still a work in progress.