Next week’s G20 summit in India is likely to be skipped by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to individuals familiar with the situation in both India and China.
Premier Li Qiang is anticipated to represent Beijing at the September 9–10 summit in New Delhi, according to two Indian officials, one diplomat residing in China, and one official employed by a different G20 nation.
Requests for comment were not answered by the foreign ministry spokespeople for China and India.
Since Joe Biden has confirmed his presence, it had been speculated that Xi and Biden could meet at the summit in India as the two superpowers work to mend fences that have been frayed by a number of trade and geopolitical disputes.
Biden and Xi last spoke outside the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in November.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has already stated that he will send Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, instead of himself, to New Delhi.
According to a senior government representative from the host India, “we are aware that the premier will come” in place of Xi.
Two foreign diplomats and a government representative from another G20 nation said in China that Xi is probably not going to the conference.
The sources in China, two of whom claimed to have received information from Chinese authorities, claimed to be unaware of the cause of his anticipated absence.
Due to their lack of authorization to speak to the media, all officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Numerous high-ranking Americans who have visited Beijing in recent months, notably Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo earlier this week, have increased interest in a meeting between Xi and Biden.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Meeting, which will take place from November 12 to 18, in San Francisco, is another upcoming summit where the two presidents are expected to meet in person.
Since China abruptly lifted severe border controls brought on by the pandemic this year, Xi, who was elected to a record-breaking third term as president last October, has taken only a small number of travels abroad.
He did, however, attend a conference of the BRICS leaders in South Africa last week, which included representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Prior to the conference, several G20 ministerial meetings were tense because China and Russia banded together to block unified declarations that contained passages denouncing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine last year.
On the fringes of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a rare chat about thawing the strained bilateral relationship that developed during hostilities over their Himalayan border in 2020 that claimed the lives of 24 soldiers.
