What G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant Said On China's Xi Jinping Skipping Summit

On Chinese President Xi Jinping not attending the G20 Summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 9-10, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Friday said China is a multilateral player and discussions at multilateral level are very different from bilateral issues.

He said China discusses issues of growth, development from its own perspective.

"China is a multilateral player. In multilateral discussions, the issues are very different from bilateral issues and the Chinese discuss issues of growth, and development from their own perspective. The challenge about any multilateral discussion is you have to bring consensus across every issue, every country has veto power. We've been able to work with every single country and bring them on board..." Mr Kant said in a press briefing prior to the G20 Summit.

Mr Kant further said that one of the key takeaways of India's presidency is that the world acknowledges that the country has truly revolutionized technology through the digital public infrastructure.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi, India on September 9 and 10.

Quoting foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, the statement read, "At the invitation of the government of the Republic of India, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi, India, on September 9 and 10."

However, no reason was given in the statement about Xi's absence from the summit.

Earlier, Reuters had reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to skip the G20 Summit to be held in India.

Sources in China, two of whom said they were informed by Chinese officials, added they were not aware of the reason for Xi's expected absence, according to Reuters.

The Chinese President has made few overseas trips since China abruptly dropped its Covid restrictions. He, however, attended the BRICS Summit 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, according to Reuters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Xi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit during which he highlighted India's concerns over the unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), in Ladakh.

The two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials "to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation".

Along with Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin will also not attend the summit in India.

According to a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov is expected to attend two plenary sessions on September 9 and 10. Lavrov is scheduled to hold several bilateral talks and contacts on the sidelines of the summit.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has said, "The coming together of the 41 Heads of delegations, Heads of State/Govt, Heads of international organisations in India, starting yesterday is under PM's personal leadership and direction. It is essentially a celebration of the coming together of the G 20 family...This is the largest-ever participation of the Global South in India."

India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 last year and about 200 meetings related to G20 were organized in 60 cities across the country.

The 18th G20 Summit will be a culmination of all the G20 processes and meetings held throughout the year among ministers, senior officials, and civil societies.

One of the takeaways of India's G20 presidency is the revolutionization of Digital Payment Infrastructure, as initially very few people knew about it, but it has taken forward extensively, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Friday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)