Daily Times

The upcoming G20 leaders’ summit in India is expected to be skipped by Chinese President Xi Jinping, sources familiar with the situation in both nations told Reuters on Thursday.

Premier Li Qiang will likely represent Beijing at the moot scheduled to take place next week (September 9–10) in New Delhi, according to two Indian officials, one diplomat based in China, and one official working for the government of another G20 nation.

Requests for comment from the Chinese and Indian foreign ministries’ spokespeople went unanswered.

The India summit has been viewed as a possible venue for Xi to meet with US President Joe Biden, who has confirmed his attendance, as the two superpowers seek to restore relations strained by a variety of trade and geopolitical tensions.

Xi and Biden last met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already stated that he will not be visiting New Delhi and will be replaced by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

According to one senior government official in host India, “we are aware that the premier will come” in place of Xi.

In China, two foreign diplomats and a government official from another G20 country said Xi will most likely not attend the summit.

The sources in China, two of whom claimed to have been informed by Chinese officials, said they were unaware of the reason for his expected absence.

All officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The prospect of a meeting between Xi and Biden has been fueled by a slew of top US officials visiting Beijing in recent months, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit earlier this week.

Another upcoming summit proposed for face-to-face talks between the two leaders is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Meeting, which will be held in San Francisco from November 12 to 18.

Xi, who was elected to a record-breaking third term as China’s leader in October, has made few overseas trips since the country abruptly lifted strict pandemic-induced border controls this year.

He did, however, attend a meeting in South Africa last week with leaders of the BRICS group of major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Several G20 ministerial meetings in India prior to the summit were contentious, with Russia and China jointly opposing joint statements that included paragraphs condemning Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine last year.

On the sidelines of the BRICS meeting in Johannesburg, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a rare conversation about reducing tensions in their bilateral relationship, which had soured after clashes along their Himalayan border in 2020 killed 24 soldiers.