Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to skip this year’s G20 Summit being hosted in India. Instead, China’s second most senior leader, Premier Li Qiang will be traveling to the event in New Delhi this weekend.
This is the first time Xi will skip the gathering, a move widely considered to be a snub at India, its BRICS counterpart. No reasons were given for his absence.
During last month’s BRICS summit, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi interaction was brief and cordial.
Ongoing border dispute
An ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India is said to be at the heart of tensions between these neighbours.
One of the territories is Aksai Chin, administered by China as part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region, but it also claimed by India as part of the union territory of Ladakh.
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Ambitious infrastructure projects along the border are also seen as one of the primary triggers of the conflict.
In 2020, India’s road infrastructure project led to a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops.
West heavy G20
There are seven BRICS countries in the G20. These are Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina.
The rest of the G20 countries are Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Turkiye, United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and South Korea.
International media reports point to Russian President Vladimir Putin (wanted for war crimes in Ukraine) also skipping the gathering.
India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and is not under legal obligation to arrest the Russian leader, should he land in the Indian capital.
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