China boycotts G20 meeting in IIOJ&K

ISLAMABAD: China announced on Friday that despite being a member state of G20, it will not attend the upcoming G20 meeting in Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

“China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings in disputed territories, and will not attend such meetings”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing held at International Press Center (IPC).

India has a plan to host the G20 summit meeting on tourism from May 22 to May 24 at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Center in Srinagar, Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Ahead of India’s G20 meeting of the working group on tourism on May 22-24, Fernand de Varennes, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, warned that the Indian government is seeking to normalize what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalising a G20 meeting and portray it as an international “seal of approval”.

Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Fernan de Varenne’s statement saying, “ In this statement, the Special Rapporteur has warned against Indian plans to hold the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar. He has rightly said that India is providing a “veneer of support to a façade of normalcy” at a time when massive human rights violations, illegal and arbitrary arrests, political persecution, restrictions, and even suppression of free media and human rights defenders continue to escalate”. India, which holds the chair of G20 this year, has organised a series of meetings across the country in the run-up to the summit in New Delhi in September.

China was earlier angered when in 2019, India created two federal territories of IIOJK, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. According to unconfirmed reports, Turkey a strong ally of Pakistan is also expected to boycott the Srinagar G 20 meeting. As yet Pakistan’s Foreign Officials have not reacted to China’s decision.