- Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Beijing recently confirmed that president Xi Jinping will not attend the G20 summit in India and China will be represented by premier Li Qiang.
By: Shubham Ghosh
AT a time when the absence of Chinese president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit and the experts were busy analysing its probable reasons and consequences, Beijing on Tuesday (5) said it has supported India in hosting this year’s G20 Summit and it’s ready to work with all parties to push for the success of the high-profile global conference in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.
A day after the Chinese foreign ministry announced that premier Li Qiang will represent China at the G20 summit instead of Xi, the ministry spokesperson told reporters here at a regular briefing that China always attaches high importance to the G20 grouping and actively participates in relevant activities.
“We support India in hosting this year’s summit and stand ready to work with all parties to make the G20 summit a success,” the official said about the conference to be held in the Indian capital.
The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the official added.
Without mentioning the boundary dispute, the spokesperson said that China-India relations have been stable on the whole and “our two sides have maintained dialogue and communication at various levels”.
“The continued improvement and growth of China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and two peoples. We stand ready to work with India to further improve and advance bilateral relations,” she added.
The ties between India and China have been under severe strain since the deadly clashes in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June 2020. The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control were key for normalisation of overall ties.
Also days before the summit, China released a ‘standard map’ that showed the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as its own part, along with the disputed Aksai Chin region, prompting India to react.
Li will be representing China at the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia from September 5 to 8.
He will travel to India after attending the East Asia summit in Jakarta, Indonesia. US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among the G20 leaders who have already confirmed their participation in the G20 summit.
(With PTI inputs)
