China's Xi likely to skip G20 summit in India - sources
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[August 31, 2023]
By Krishn Kaushik, Laurie Chen and Martin Quin Pollard
NEW DELHI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to
skip a summit of G20 leaders in India next week, sources familiar with
the matter in India and China told Reuters.
Two Indian officials, one diplomat based in China and one official
working for the government of another G20 country said Premier Li Qiang
is expected to represent Beijing at the Sept. 9-10 meeting in New Delhi.
Spokespersons for the Indian and Chinese foreign ministries did not
respond to requests for comment.
Li is also likely to attend a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders
in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sept 5-7, according to a report from Kyodo.
The summit in India had been viewed as a venue at which Xi may meet with
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has confirmed his attendance, as the two
superpowers seek to stabilise relations soured by a range of trade and
geopolitical tensions.
Xi last met Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia
last November.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already announced that he will not
be travelling to New Delhi and will send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
instead.
One senior government official from host India told Reuters that “we are
aware that the premier will come”, in place of Xi.
In China, two foreign diplomats and a government official from another
G20 country said that Xi will likely not be travelling for the summit.
Two of these three sources in China said they were informed by Chinese
officials, but they were not aware of the reason for Xi's expected
absence.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not
authorised to speak to the media.
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President of China Xi Jinping attends
the plenary session during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton
Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 23, 2023.
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Anticipation of a meeting between Xi and Biden has been fuelled by a
stream of top U.S. officials visiting Beijing in recent months,
including a trip by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo earlier this
week.
Another upcoming summit mooted for face-to-face talks between the
two leaders is an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Meeting
in San Francisco on Nov. 12-18.
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.
He did, however, attend a meeting from leaders of the BRICS group
of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa - in South Africa last week.
Several G20 ministerial meetings in India ahead of the summit have
been contentious as Russia and China together opposed joint
statements which included paragraphs condemning Moscow for its
invasion of Ukraine last year.
Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rare conversation
on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting in Johannesburg and discussed
reducing tensions in the bilateral relationship that soured after
clashes along their Himalayan frontier in 2020 left 24 soldiers
dead.
(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik in New Delhi and Laurie Chen and
Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing; Editing by YP Rajesh, John Geddie
and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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