By Our Reporter
India hosted the G-20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the Summit, signalling a clear division within the G-20.
Instead of President Xi, Prime Minister Li Qiang led China’s delegation while Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov led the Russian delegation.
The absence of Xi and Putin in the key Summit was meaningful. Many have interpreted it in many ways. The growing enmity between Russia and the USA and between China and India and the USA culminated in the absence of the two key leaders. This also showed that China and Russia are now together while India has been close to the USA. This was also the beginning of the revival of the bipolar world again with USA and India in one group and China and Russia in another.
G-20 member countries include Japan, India, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kindom, United States, and the European Union.
Modi also invited Bangladesh, Comoros (African Union (AU) Chair), Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates to the summit this time
Among the international organizations which attended the Summit are: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Financial Stability Board (FSB), International Labor Organization (ILO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Solar Alliance (ISA), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations (UN), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), World Trade Organization (WTO).
Obviously, Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the G-20 in New Delhi was unexpected. It is the first time China’s top leader was not present at the gathering since the G20 began annual meetings in 2008.
There might be many reasons for his absence. However, political pundits have argued that Xi did not attend the Summit as he had just returned to Beijing from a challenging BRICS summit in South Africa. He also wanted to show that BRICS was more important than G-20 for him.
China has published a new standard map which includes the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the disputed Aksai Chin plateau within Chinese territory. This also played a role in Xi’s absence.
Xi’s absence was intended as a show of support for Putin who was not going to be present at the meeting. Had China attended the G-20 Summit, Western leaders were likely to exert pressure for a statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to press China to use its influence on Moscow to help end the conflict. At the 2022 G20, China joined Russia in opposing the use of the term “war” to describe the conflict in Ukraine.
When the Ukraine war was sure to be a topic of discussion, Putin wanted to avoid that.
The bad news headlines in the Western media on the state of China’s economy, social unrest and the recent purge of some of China’s top military leaders in August are also said to have discouraged Xi from attending the summit.
Whatever Xi’s reasons for not attending the G-20, China’s absence has significant downsides. Without the top leader of the country that represents more than 18% of global GDP and plays an outsize role in international development finance at the table, it is harder for the forum to act effectively to address the urgent concerns of emerging and developing economies from climate change to food security to debt restructuring.
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