Chinese President Xi Jinping will skip next week’s G-20 summit in Johannesburg, dealing a diplomatic blow to host South Africa, which is already contending with a boycott by former US President Donald Trump. Xi will send Premier Li Qiang in his place, continuing China’s “home-court diplomacy” while limiting international travel. With Trump absent and Russian President Vladimir Putin unable to attend due to an ICC arrest warrant, the summit will proceed without the leaders of the world’s two largest economies—China and the US—and without Russia. Despite these high-profile absences, several European leaders, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa maintains the summit will succeed, seeing potential advantages in reaching agreements more easily.
Bloomberg
