Chinese President Xi Jinping isn’t showing up in person at this week’s G20 summit in India, but a Chinese spokeswoman offered no explanation.
Only recently Xi has been bigging himself and China up in an international leadership role at the BRICS summit in South Africa.
Instead, Premier Li Qiang will represent China at the Sept. 9-10 gathering, the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a one-sentence notice on its website.
Relations between China and India have grown frosty over their disputed border, and three years ago the tensions resulted in a clash in the Ladakh region that killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. It turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, where each side has stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets.
Frictions have also risen over trade and India’s growing strategic ties with China’s main rival, the United States. Both India and China have expelled the other’s journalists.
India recently overtook China as the world’s most populous nation and the two are rivals in technology, space exploration and global trade.
Asked why Xi would not be attending the summit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning declined to answer.
“The G20 is a major forum for international economic cooperation. China has always attached great importance to and actively participated in relevant activities,” Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.
“Premier Li Qiang will elaborate on China’s views and propositions on G20 cooperation, promote the G20 to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and work together to address global economic and development challenges,” she said.
She said China is ready to work with all parties “to jointly promote the success of the G20” summit and “make positive contributions to promoting the stable recovery of the world economy and promoting sustainable development.”
The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries which meets to discuss plans for the global economy.Between them, G20 countries account for 85% of the world’s economic output and 75% of world trade. They contain two-thirds of the global population.
The members are the European Union and 19 nations – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US. Spain is always invited as a guest.A smaller group of G20 member countries meets as the G7.
As 2023 president, India wants the Delhi summit to concentrate on sustainable development, as well as measures to spread economic growth more evenly between developed and developing countries
The summit also provides an opportunity for one-to-one discussions to take place alongside group sessions.The White House says that US President Joe Biden will talk to individual leaders about tackling climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and getting global organisations such as the World Bank to do more to fight poverty.
China and the USA have recently been at loggerheads over trade issues, with the US resentful of what it sees as China stealing technology secrets.
Sources: VOA, BBC, CNN.
