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Xi Jinping’s absence is a deliberate snub to India, says Shashi Tharoor

Global Advisory, The Last Digital Frontier - Brian Asingia
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Former Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs and now Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor, believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s absence from the G20 Summit is a political move and a deliberate snub to India. 

“Xi Jinping’s absence is much more of a political signal. That is a deliberate snub to India because Xi was there at BRICS and he’s going to be holding a BRI event in Beijing shortly which Putin will attend,” he said in an exclusive conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Parikshit Luthra.

Putin’s absence

Tharoor highlights Putin‘s absence from recent multilateral summits is a constant pattern except within a tight circle of Russia’s immediate neighbours and allies. Since the beginning of war in Ukraine, the Russian President has been found missing in many global summits including recently concluded BRICS Summit in South Africa and G20 Summit in Indonesia’s Bali in 2022.

“He’s being absent this year is not a surprise.”

In March this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of being involved in abductions of children from Ukraine. This has been cited as one of the reasons for his absence.

Joint Communique

On the question of a joint communique, the former diplomat said with the summit soon to arrive, the government is busy trying to build consensus on the document and the wording of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. He believes that it is important for India to have a consensus document to send out a strong message about its G20 presidency.

“It would have been very important because the success of every summit is reflected in a joint communique and every single G20 summit including the last one in Indonesia last year, concluded with an agreed joint communique,” he said, adding, “But when it comes to Ukraine, the Russians and Chinese are absolutely unwilling to budge, they want no reference to it, no condemnation, not even deploring the war.”

In Tharoor’s opinion, India has done a reasonable job under its year long Presidency on all the other complicated thorny issues including debt relief, development agenda issues, admission of the African Union among others.

Several issues including climate change, sustainable energy, international debt and taxing multinational corporations are likely to come up during this year’s meet in New Delhi.

First Published: Sept 5, 2023 9:14 PM IST

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