Xi Jinping set to skip India’s G20 summit in blow to hopes for consensus

Chinese president’s absence will be filled by his premier Li Qiang who will represent Beijing, officials say

China’s president Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a session meeting during the 10th BRICS summit in 2018 (AFP via Getty Images)

Xi Jinping will likely miss the G20 summit of world leaders in India, becoming the second politician after Russian president Vladimir Putin to skip the critical meeting.

The Chinese president’s absence will be filled by his premier Li Qiang who will represent Beijing at the two-day summit to be held in central Delhi on 9 and 10 September, people aware of Beijing’s decision said.

While spokespersons for the Indian and Chinese foreign ministries have not issued an official statement in this matter, a senior Indian government official said in his remarks to news agency Reuters, “We are aware that the premier will come” in place of Mr Xi.

There is no confirmation of Mr Xi’s participation in the G20 summit as of Wednesday, one of the officials told leading Indian daily Hindustan Times.

On China’s side, three officials including two foreign diplomats in Beijing and a government official from another G20 country, told Reuters that the president will likely not be travelling for the summit.

The two sources from China said they were informed by Chinese officials but no clear reason for Mr Xi’s expected absence was clearly shared.

The critical summit, positioning India as a leading global force, is set to be a meeting stage for international leaders as Mr Xi was likely to meet his US counterpart Joe Biden in New Delhi. Mr Biden has confirmed his attendance for the two days.

Not only are the bilateral ties between China and the US strained among spiking tensions in trade and geopolitical issues, even Beijing and New Delhi are facing a tough reconciliation dialogue on a border dispute. A latest map by the Chinese officials that showed the entire Indian northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh as its own territory has irked Indian government.

Mr Xi and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi recently met at a Brics group meeting last week in South Africa where leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa gathered.

The two held a rare conversation on the sidelines of the meeting in Johannesburg where officials claimed Mr Modi discussed reducing tensions in the bilateral relationship that soured after clashes along their Himalayan frontier in 2020 left 24 soldiers dead.

A diplomatic row erupted shortly after over which side requested the meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Modi.

India and China have faced strained ties for many years, with relations plummeting further after the nuclear neighbours were embroiled in a bitter border dispute that began in 2020.

This was their first officially announced meeting since 2020. Mr Modi and Mr Xi had held brief talks on the sidelines of G20 Summit held in Bali last year, but that interaction was kept under wraps for almost eight months.

That meeting had come to light after China said Mr Xi and Mr Modi had reached an “important consensus” during their interaction at the Bali summit.

India and China have so far held 19 rounds of military and commander-level talks to disengage and de-escalate from the border. They have yielded no breakthrough and little progress.

China and India have, however, maintained a joint front on condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year in their statements in paragraphs.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said Mr Putin was too “busy” to attend the G20 summit in India.

He spoke on the phone with Mr Modi, who expressed his “understanding” that the Russian president will not travel to join the summit alongside the likes of Britain’s Rishi Sunak and US president Biden, the Indian foreign ministry said.

Russia will instead be represented by the country’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov during the summit.