Beijing: China on Tuesday said it has supported India in hosting this year’s G20 Summit and it’s ready to work with all parties to push for the success of the high-profile global conference in New Delhi this week.
On Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry announced that Premier Li Qiang will represent China at the G20 Summit instead of President Xi Jinping.
Asked whether the decision to send the Premier instead of the President to India reflect tensions between the two countries, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a regular briefing Tuesday said that China-India relations have been stable on the whole and the two sides have “maintained dialogue and communication at various levels”.
Without mentioning the boundary dispute, she said, “the continued improvement and growth of China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and two peoples. We stand ready to work with India to further improve and advance bilateral relations.”
On the G20 summit, the spokesperson said China always attaches high importance to the grouping and actively participates in relevant activities.
“We support India in hosting this year’s summit and stand ready to work with all parties to make the G20 Summit a success,” she said on the conference to be held in New Delhi on September 9-10.
The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation, she 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.
Premier Li will be representing China at the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia from September 5 to 8. He will travel to India after attending the East Asia summit in Jakarta.
US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among the G20 leaders who have already confirmed their participation in the G20 Summit.
The G20 member countries represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.
