India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, addressing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Conference with India during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta, on July 13, 2023, leaving Myanmar’s seat empty. BAY EZMOYO/POOL via REUTERS/File photo Obtain licensing rights
NEW DELHI, Sep 6 (Reuters) – The absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin from this week’s G20 summit in New Delhi is not unusual and has nothing to do with India, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told news agency ANI.
Sherpas from the G20 countries are negotiating to build consensus and reach a declaration at the September 9-10 summit in New Delhi, Jaishankar said in the interview aired on Wednesday.
“No, no. I don’t think it has anything to do with India,” he told ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake, when asked whether Putin and Xi would miss the summit because they were upset with India.
“I think whatever decision they make, I mean, they’ll know best. But I wouldn’t see it at all the way you’re suggesting,” he said.
Asked whether their absence would affect building consensus and issuing an announcement at the end of the summit, Jaishankar said: “We are negotiating now… the clock did not strike yesterday.”
But he said expectations from the G20 were “very high” and that New Delhi faced the challenge of dealing with a “very difficult world” reeling from the pandemic, conflict, climate change, debt and politics.
The G20 includes the twenty largest economies in the world, and its leaders aim to try to find solutions to some of the world’s pressing problems, despite the deep geopolitical division over the war in Ukraine that threatens any progress.
But the absence of Putin and Xi, as well as divisions over the war, mean it will be difficult to reach a consensus declaration by the leaders at the summit, analysts and officials said. US President Joe Biden will focus on reforming the World Bank and getting others to act. The White House said on Tuesday that multilateral development banks will boost lending for climate change and infrastructure projects during the summit.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he hoped to discuss digital and food security issues. India said discussions were under way on a global framework for regulating crypto assets.
Reported by YP Rajesh. Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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