Xi Jinping (L) and Narendra Modi (R) during their brief interaction at the BRICS summit in South Africa. Also seen is the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa (C). (Photo via Twitter)
New Delhi: The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, may skip attending the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, according to a news report. The two-day G20 summit is scheduled to take place in the Indian capital starting September 9.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that unnamed sources in both India and China told it about Xi’s decision. Reuters further said two Indian officials, including a diplomat in China and another working for the government of another G20 country, told it that instead of Xi, the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, will attend the summit.
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Indian officials didn’t comment on reporters’ queries on this matter. It is understood that even Chinese officials have not said anything on record about Xi’s plan to drop his New Delhi G20 visit.
This comes soon after the BRICS summit in South Africa’s Sandton, near the capital Johannesburg, where the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and Xi were present and briefly shook hands with each other without much interaction.
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Observers say the recent tension between New Delhi and Beijing over the military stand-off and build-up in Ladakh is a major reason for why Xi doesn’t want to come to India at this moment. Diplomatic ties between India and China are at its lowest in many decades since China’s 2020 incursion into eastern Ladakh violating all border agreements in the past three decades to maintain status quo and peace.
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Besides, as the summit is being held in New Delhi, Modi and India are likely to dominate the diplomatic and media space leaving the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao Zedong in an awkward position.
