It's official, Chinese President Xi Jinping set to skip G20 Leaders' Summit

Only the Rome 2021 summit had more leaders absent

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to skip the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi later this week. In an official statement on Monday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Premier Li Qiang will attend the summit.
 

Apart from Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have also announced their absence. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Mexican Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez will attend in their stead.

Modi and Xi recently had a conversation on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, raising

hopes that the two leaders will meet at the G20 summit.

 

Meanwhile, Li, who assumed the position of Premier in March, has already made two international trips to Germany and France.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, according to a Reuters report, declined to directly confirm that Li’s attendance meant that Xi would not go to New Delhi, although she did not correct reporters who made that assertion.

With this, three countries won’t be represented at the New Delhi summit by their heads of government.

This does not include Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been undertaking official foreign visits on behalf of his father, Saudi ruler Salman bin Abdulaziz, for many years.

Previously, only the 2021 Summit in Rome saw more leaders remain absent at the premier multilateral platform since the summit became an annual event in 2011. This included heads of governments from Russia, China, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden expressed his disappointment that Xi would not be attending the summit.

“I am disappointed, but I am going to get to see him,” said Biden. He may have been referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in San Francisco later this year.

Biden has said he is looking forward to his India trip, which begins on Friday. He is scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Media reports have indicated that French President Emmanuel Macron and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will also have bilateral meetings with Modi.

Most other G20 leaders have confirmed their visit to India. This includes Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has confirmed his visit despite sustaining injuries while jogging on Saturday.

However, India is yet to receive confirmation from some other G20 and invited leaders, according to sources.

Visits by leaders are closely monitored due to their political significance. Often, visits to multiple nations are combined. Both Lavrov and Macron will be visiting the neighbouring capital, Dhaka, on September 7 and 11, respectively.