With Chinese President Xi Jinping unlikely to attend the forthcoming G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi this month, the Indian side feels that the Chinese leader is taking this step to avoid ‘another round of hard talk’ by India on the LAC issues. Diplomatic sources closely monitoring the information network in China told The Daily Guardian that soon after returning from the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Xi consulted his advisors in Beijing on whether to attend the summit in India or not. “He was advised to skip the G20 summit and send a minister instead,” sources said.
The Chinese side is in fact aware that India is ready with hard facts and substantial amounts of evidence to confront Xi Jinping if he visits New Delhi and meets with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the summit is being held under India’s presidency of G20, it would be difficult for Xi to avoid meeting with PM Modi. During a brief meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did some hard talk with Xi Jinping on the LAC dispute, sources said. “Xi was not allowed to raise any other issue which he wanted to touch upon to duck questions on the LAC matters in Johannesburg,” sources added.
Therefore, Xi does not want to see a similar situation in New Delhi where the Indian side is said to be determined to talk tough with him on the LAC deadlock, sources added. “This could be the reason behind Xi’s decision not to attend the G20 summit,” said diplomats here. According to an official, Xi does not have any satisfactory answer or explanation to India’s questions related to the boundary problems. Moreover, Chinese diplomats are anticipating that if Xi makes it to the summit then India will use the occasion to talk about the need for restoration of status quo ante as of April 2020 along the LAC in eastern Ladakh region. The officials in Beijing think that such a situation could be embarrassing for the Chinese President. According to sources at MEA, India wants a clear statement from Beijing on Xi’s visit plan. “We want to hear whether he is coming to New Delhi for the G20 leaders’ summit or not. A categorical statement should come from China in this regard,” a diplomat said. “If Xi chooses to skip the conclave, then he should also state the reason why he is doing so,” said officials here.