Chances of Xi Jinping's visit to India for G20 summit 'very low'

New Delhi: India has not yet received any confirmation on Chinese President Xi Jinping's participation at the G20 summit on September 9 and 10 and the chances of his in-person attendence at the conclave are "very low", people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

There is a possibility that China may send Premier Li Qiang for the summit to be held in New Delhi, they said.

A majority of G20 leaders, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, have already confirmed their participation at the summit.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and  Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are also among the G20 leaders who have confirmed their participation at the summit.

The chances of Xi's in-person participation at the summit is very low, the people cited above said without elaborating.

It is learnt that Premier Li is likely to travel to India after attending the East Asia summit in Jakarta.

There was no official word from the Indian side on the Chinese participation at the G20 summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it will not be possible for him to travel to India to participate in the summit.

In its capacity as current president of G20, India is hosting the annual summit of the influential grouping.

Asked about a report by Reuters that said Xi is likely to skip the upcoming G20 summit in India, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a media briefing in Beijing that he has nothing to offer on the matter.

"On the Chinese leaders attending the G20 summit, I have nothing to offer at the moment," Wang said.

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 (LAC) were key for normalisation of overall ties.

On its part, China has been arguing that the boundary question does not represent the "entirety" of the bilateral relations, insisting that the two sides should move forward on overall relations.

Prime Minister Modi and President Xi held a conversation on August 23 on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in Johannesburg.

Following the conversation, India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said Modi conveyed to Xi India's concerns on the "unresolved" issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, underlining that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas was essential for normalisation of India-China ties.

Kwatra said the two leaders also agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at "expeditious disengagement and de-escalation".

However, the Chinese readout did not have any mention of this.

The Chinese statement said President Xi Jinping conveyed to PM Modi that both sides should "bear in mind" the "overall interests" of the ties and "properly" handle the border issue.

On Monday, China released a so-called "standard map" laying claim over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin drawing a strong protest from India.

The "map" also showed the entire South China Sea and Taiwan as part of China as it featured in the previous editions of the 'map'.