New Delhi: Although the Indian government has yet to receive a formal confirmation from Beijing about Chinese President Xi Jinping attending the G20 Summit in New Delhi next week, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ThePrint that the chances of his participation are “low”.
With less than 10 days to go for the 2023 G20 Leaders Summit — which is being held under India’s presidency — there is speculation that Xi will be sending Chinese Premier Li Qiang to the meeting instead.
US President Joe Biden also weighed in on the rumours Friday when asked by reporters if he was expecting Xi to attend the meet. “The answer is, I hope he attends the G20 Summit,” said Biden. So far, only one world leader has announced that they would not be in attendance: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be represented by his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
Traditionally, the Chinese president attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), G20 and BRICS summits, while the premier — who holds the second-highest rank in China’s political system — attends the East Asia Summit, which will take place this year from 6-7 September in Indonesia.
If Xi skips the G20 Summit, it will be a first — he has attended all others since becoming president in 2013.
The G20 Summit comes two weeks after Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a brief conversation on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, about border tensions.
The Chinese foreign ministry had later claimed the conversation was facilitated at India’s request, while sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said “there was a pending request from the Chinese side for a bilateral meeting”.
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‘Xi’s absence could send bad signal’
Diplomacy experts agree that Xi Jinping’s chances of attending the G20 Summit are “low”, adding that his absence could send a bad signal about the future of India-China ties. They say Xi’s failure to attend the G20 Summit under India’s presidency will hurt him as well.
“Modi may well have proved at the BRICS Summit that he was no pushover. India needed to stand firm on the issue of status quo ante over the LAC (Line of Actual Control),” former ambassador Vijay Nambiar told ThePrint.
“If Xi doesn’t attend the G20 Summit, it will also hurt him. It is not as if this is a favour he was doing to the Indian PM,” he added.
The G20 Leaders Summit will take place in New Delhi from 9-10 September.
According to former ambassador to China, Ashok K. Kantha, Xi’s absence would reaffirm claims that India-China relations are on a “downward spiral”.
“If Xi Jinping skips the G20 Summit, it will send a signal about where China stands in its relations with India. It will reaffirm the assessment that ties are on a downward spiral and that the possibility of resolving outstanding issues in the bilateral sphere are not bright,” he said, adding that it will also convey “the lower level of significance” Beijing is attaching to G20 and India hosting its summit meeting.
Kantha, however, disputed the speculation that Xi skipping the G20 Summit would have something to do with how his conversation with Modi panned out in Johannesburg.
“Issues have been piling up for a while now. The border standoff and other structural differences in the relationship remain unresolved,” he said.
“The two countries came out with differing and mutually discordant readouts on the Johannesburg meeting, which was emblematic of the state of relations. Since then, China has released a controversial map including Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, which has elicited a strong reaction from New Delhi,” Kantha added.
On 28 August, China released the 2023 edition of its “standard map”, incorporating — apart from Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin — the country’s claims on South China Sea as depicted by the controversial nine-dash line.
India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam have so far issued statements opposing the map.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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