Jaishankar: Xi, Putin skipping summit ‘not unusual’

China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin skipping this week’s G20 summit in New Delhi is not unusual and has nothing to do with India, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told ANI news agency.

Sherpas of the G20 countries are negotiating to build a consensus and arrive at a declaration at the Sept. 9-10 summit in New Delhi, he said in an interview.

“No, no. I do not think it has anything to do with India,” he said, when asked if Putin and Xi are skipping the summit because they are miffed with India.

“I think whatever decision they make, I mean they would know best. But I would not at all see it the way you would suggest,” he said.

Asked if their absence would affect building a consensus and producing a declaration at the end of the summit, Jaishankar said: “We are negotiating right now…the clock did not start ticking yesterday.”

But expectations from G20 are “very high” and New Delhi faces the challenge of dealing with a “very difficult world” reeling under the impact of the pandemic, conflict, climate change, debt and politics, he said