NEW DELHI: Denying that there was anything unusual about Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin not coming for the G20 summit, foreign minister S Jaishankar said their absence had nothing to do with India and that “everybody is coming with a great deal of seriousness”. China will be represented by premier Li Qiang and Russia will have foreign minister Sergey Lavrov attending.
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Delhi G20 Summit LiveWhile Putin is skipping the summit second time running, Xi’s absence is more dramatic as he has attended all G20 summits except in 2021 when he didn’t travel apparently because of Covid.
Replying to a question on whether the absence of Xi and Putin would cast a shadow on the leaders’ summit, Jaishankar, in an interview to ANI, said, “I think at different points of time in G20 there have been some presidents or PMs who for whatever reason, have chosen not to come themselves but that country, and that country’s position is obviously reflected by whoever is the representative on that occasion. So, you had some occasions where you had a president or two, sometimes three, who have not themselves come.”
“I do not think it has anything to do with India. Whatever decision they make, they would know best,” he added. While both US and UK have admitted a consensus on the Ukraine war will be difficult, Jaishankar said the G20 sherpas were trying to hammer out the final document in their ongoing meeting in Haryana.
Asked about any impact on the outcome of the summit, Jaishankar said the issues being taken up are not new. “These are not issues that are this morning being taken up, there is a whole gestation period of eight-nine months, where at different levels, ministers or officials have tried to progress an issue. So, this is like a culmination,” he said.
“Well, we are negotiating right now. As I said the negotiation is not... the clock did not start ticking yesterday... the clock has been ticking for some time,” he added.
Asked about consensus building and what will India see as a win-win situation, Jaishankar said it is just not a matter of India seeing something. “Today the expectations of the world are very high in terms of what the G20 is able to produce and produce in terms of meeting the challenges of the world. So, if you were to go to Africa, go to Latin America, go to parts of Asia, go to the Caribbean, and go to the Pacific, everybody is today saying, okay I have a certain set of issues. I have a debt problem, I have a trade problem, I have a health access problem... What will G20 do for me? So, the world is waiting,” he said.