Chinese President Xi Jinping To Skip G20 Summit In India, Li Qiang To Attend

Chinese President Xi Jinping has officially declined to attend the G20 Summit scheduled to take place in New Delhi on September 9-10, as confirmed by Beijing on Monday. The Chinese delegation will instead be led by Premier Li Qiang, as announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

In a brief statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning stated, "At the invitation of the Government of the Republic of India, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi, India on 9 and 10 September."

Spokesperson Mao did not provide any reason for President Xi's absence from the high-profile conclave hosted by India for the first time.

While Chinese officials had conveyed President Xi Jinping's decision to skip the New Delhi summit to their Indian counterparts on September 2, a written confirmation of this decision is still pending.

President Xi is also skipping the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia summits in Jakarta this week.

Premier Li will be representing China at the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia.

At the invitation of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, the current ASEAN chair, Premier of the State Council Li will attend the 26th China-ASEAN Summit, the 26th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from September 5 to 8, and pay an official visit to Indonesia, another Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced on September 1, as reported by news agency PTI.

Now, Premier Li is expected to travel to India after attending the East Asia summit in Jakarta. In 2021, Chinese President Xi did not travel to Italy to participate in the G20 summit due to China's COVID-19 restrictions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi his decision to not attend the summit in-person as he has to focus on the ''special military operation'' in Ukraine.

The Russian president had skipped the Bali summit of G20 in November last year as well.

The G20 member countries represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).