Amidst media reports of Chinese military along the LAC and continued tension between the two countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the G20 summit hosted by India is a reflection of Beijing’s strained relationship with both the United States and India. Jinping may have chosen to skip the event to avoid coming face-to-face with Biden at a time when the Sino-US relations have taken a rocky turn with Washington no longer giving Beijing a free pass on trade, technology and geopolitical issues. His absence also indicates that the India-China ties are likely to remain in cold storage.
The absence of Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit definitely raised some questions. Though Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the summit, the absence of Jinping was definitely a talking point. Since assuming the presidency of the G20 last December, India has been working hard at every ministerial and working group level meeting to find a middle ground between the two divergent positions held by Russia and China on the one hand and the Western countries on the other. The Ukraine war has divided and polarised the G20 grouping. While Russia and China have objected to the formulation used in the G20 Bali Declaration last year, the West, led by the G7 grouping, has sought to reiterate the Bali Declaration, which condemned the Russian invasion. Jinping’s absence also raises concern over the possibility of China continuing their hostile approach towards India. Ever since the clashes broke out between the two armies in eastern Ladakh, which caused death on both sides, the relationship between the two nations continues to remain hostile.