Focus should be on position taken by nations: EAM on leaders skipping G20

With some leaders deciding to skip the G20 Summit, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said the focus should be on the position taken by countries on key burning issues than on the levels of representations at the conclave.

"At the end of the day, countries are represented by whoever they have chosen to represent them. The levels of representation do not become the final determinant of the position of a country," Jaishankar said.

He made the remarks at a discussion on Doordarshan.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced in Beijing on Monday that China's President Xi Jinping will not attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi this week and the Chinese delegation will be led by Li Qiang.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi his decision not to attend the summit in-person as he has to focus on the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Putin had skipped the Bali summit of G20 in November last year as well.

In his comments on Doordarshan, Jaishankar said this year's G20 summit will be remembered for the "outcomes it produced, adding the focus should be on solutions and actions to tackle the burning issues of the day.

In its capacity as current president of G20, India is hosting the annual summit of the influential grouping in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.

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).