Xi may skip G20 Summit, Chinese Premier likely to attend

The chances of Chinese President Xi Jinping attending the G20 Summit hosted by India next month are “extremely low” and Beijing is expected to be represented by Premier Li Qiang, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Updated on: Sep 1, 2023, 24:31:52 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar, New Delhi

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The chances of Chinese President Xi Jinping attending the G20 Summit hosted by India next week are “extremely low” and Beijing is expected to be represented by Premier Li Qiang, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

China is yet to officially confirm Xi’s participation in the G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi during September 9-10 and several behind the scenes developments suggested he is unlikely to attend the meet, the people said on condition of anonymity.

The people said a flight plan filed through official channels for the VVIP aircraft carrying the Chinese delegation to the G20 Summit suggested it will arrive in New Delhi from Jakarta, where Li will head the Chinese delegation at the East Asia Summit. It is already known that Xi won’t attend the East Asia Summit, which brings together the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and eight dialogue partners.

Indian officials attached to a Chinese advance party that was in New Delhi recently to assess preparations for the G20 Summit also picked up indications that the Chinese delegation is expected to be led by the premier, two persons said.

These developments have come against the backdrop of one of the worst phases in the India-China relationship in six decades, with the two countries locked in a military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that has dragged on for more than three years. Both sides have failed to reach an understanding on disengagement of troops at crucial friction points despite multiple rounds of talks.

The people cited above said official word was awaited from the Chinese side about Xi’s participation in the G20 Summit. “As of today [Thursday], there is no confirmation about the Chinese president’s participation in the G20 Summit,” one person said.

Another person said the Chinese side is expected to make a formal announcement regarding participation in the summit closer to the dates for the event.

Reuters cited an Indian official in New Delhi and two foreign diplomats and an official from another G20 country in China – all unnamed – to report that Xi is likely to skip the G20 Summit. Li is expected to represent China at the meet, the report said.

There was no official word from the Indian side on the matter. When Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked on Thursday about reports of Xi skipping the G20 Summit, he replied: “On Chinese leaders attending the G20 Summit, I have nothing to offer at the moment.”

Last week, the gap between India and China on the LAC standoff became clear when the two sides offered different characterisations of a conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi on the margins of the Brics Summit in Johannesburg. At the same time, Beijing sought to downplay the standoff as a “historical issue” that doesn’t represent the entirety of bilateral ties.

The Indian side clarified that the Modi-Xi encounter was the outcome of a pending Chinese request for a bilateral meeting, while China’s foreign ministry issued a readout that said the conversation was held at the Indian leadership’s request.

Modi told Xi during the conversation that maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas and respecting the LAC are “essential” for normalising bilateral ties. The Indian side further said the two leaders agreed to “direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation”.

However, the Chinese readout made no mention of efforts aimed at disengagement of troops and de-escalation, and only quoted Xi as saying that the “two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue”.

Ties have also been hit by Beijing’s release of a so-called “standard map” that depicted Aksai Chin, which China occupied during the 1962 war, and Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as south Tibet, as part of Chinese territory. The Indian side lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels and rejected the claims. Such steps by China “only complicate the resolution of the boundary question”, the external affairs ministry said.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar too dismissed the new Chinese map as part of “absurd claims”.

The two sides have struggled to address the remaining friction points on the LAC, especially Depsang and Demchok, after more than two dozen rounds of diplomatic and military talks.

The G20 Summit was being seen as a venue for possible bilateral meetings between Xi and other leaders such as Modi and US President Joe Biden, who has confirmed his attendance.

Moscow has already announced that President Vladimir Putin will not be travelling to New Delhi and the Russian delegation will be led by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Xi has made few foreign visits since China dropped strict Covid-19-related restrictions this year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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