India’s hard talk on border issues is one of the major reasons Xi Jinping is unlikely to attend the G20 Summit in India, top government sources told News18, adding that the Chinese President could be trying to avoid a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PM Modi had briefly met Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in South Africa last month, where, sources said, he categorically asked the Chinese leader to clarify his position on the border dispute. A visit to India for the G20 Summit without holding a bilateral meeting with the host nation would have proven to be a diplomatic disaster for Xi Jinping, which is why he may skip the crucial gathering altogether, sources said.
Such a visit would also not bode well for the Chinese President in domestic politics since India has made it clear that, like Pakistan, China would have to iron out border issues before proceeding to trade talks that Xi could have presented as a personal achievement before the Communist Party of China.
According to reports, there is a possibility that China may send Premier Li Qiang for the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.
A majority of G20 leaders, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, have already confirmed their participation at the summit.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are also among the G20 leaders who have confirmed their participation.
Sources added that with Russian President Vladimir Putin skipping the summit given frosty ties with the West over the Ukraine war, Xi Jinping would not want to share the stage with G7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — in New Delhi since Beijing and Moscow enjoy cordial ties.
Xi has attended all other in-person G20 summits since becoming president in 2013 except in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic when he joined the Saudi Arabia-hosted summit by video link.
Xi, who secured a precedent-breaking third term as leader last October, has made few overseas trips since China abruptly dropped strict pandemic-induced border controls this year.
The ties between India and China have been under severe strain since the deadly clashes in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June 2020. The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a confrontation for over three years in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.
India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were key for normalisation of overall ties.
On its part, China has been arguing that the boundary question does not represent the “entirety” of the bilateral relations, insisting that the two sides should move forward on overall relations.
On Monday, China released a so-called “standard map” laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin drawing a strong protest from India.
The “map” also showed the entire South China Sea and Taiwan as part of China as it featured in the previous editions of the ‘map’.
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