Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the G20 Summit in Delhi this weekend, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement on its website Monday afternoon.
Quoting foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, the statement said, “At the invitation of the government of the Republic of India, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi, India, on September 9 and 10.”
No reason was given for the Chinese leader’s absence and Mr Jinping is also skipping the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia summits in Indonesia’s Jakarta later this week, news agency PTI reported. Mr Qiang will represent China on both occasions.
Confirmation Mr Jinping will not be at this year’s G20 Summit comes after days of speculation to that effect and shortly after a brief global row over a new “standard map” that claims Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin, as well as territory from other nations, as its own.
Mr Jinping is the second world leader to skip the summit in India; last week Russia’s Vladimir Putin conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi his inability to attend the meeting. Mr Putin told the Prime Minister he intends to send foreign minister Sergey Lavrov instead.
Speculation the Chinese president will not be in Delhi this weekend had been building up over the past week, prompting United States President Joe Biden to express disappointment.
While they will not meet in Delhi during the G20 meetings, Mr Jinping and Prime Minister Modi did speak briefly on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in South Africa last month.
At the time, the PM and his Chinese counterpart agreed to work towards “expeditious de-escalation” along the Line of Actual Control after violence in June 2020 in eastern Ladakh.
