China's Xi to skip G20 summit in India over soured relations

Chinese President Xi Jinping will skip this week’s Group of 20 summit in India as bilateral relations remain icy and Premier Li Qiang will attend in his place, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

A one sentence notice on the ministry's website on Monday says: "At the invitation of the government of the Republic of India, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit to be held in New Delhi, India on September 9 and 10.”

Relations between China and India have grown frosty over their disputed border that three years ago resulted in a violent clash between their troops, resulting in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese.

They have also clashed over trade and India's growing strategic ties with China's main regional rival the United States.

Territory dispute

Last week, India protested a new Chinese map that lays claim to India’s territory, a foreign ministry official said, exacerbating tensions during a three-year military standoff between the two nations.

"We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” the External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said India also formally lodged the objection through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 “standard map” of China that lays claim to India’s territory.

The version of the Chinese map published on the website of the Ministry of Natural Resources clearly shows Arunachal Pradesh and the Doklam Plateau, over which the two sides have feuded, included within Chinese borders, along with Aksai Chin in the western section which China controls but India still claims.

India recently overtook China as the world's most populous nation and the two are rivals in technology, space exploration and global trade.