Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders of the BRICS grouping during the G20 Summit in Japan this week where the talks would be focussed on opposing the “unilateralist” and “protectionist” trade policies of the US, a senior Chinese minister said on Monday.
China, which is seeking to build a strong opposition against President Donald Trump using trade and tariffs as a weapon to enforce his “America first” policy, said the issues of “unilateral” and protectionist” policies would be discussed in detail at the meetings of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and Russia, India and China (RIC) at Osaka.
The G20 summit would be held at Osaka on June 28-29. Chinese President Xi Jinping will go there a day ahead of the Summit to take part in host of informal meetings including his meeting with Trump for key talks to end the bruising trade war between the top two economies of the world. Modi, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the recently held Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Kirgiz capital Bishkek.
Highlighting the importance of Modi-Xi-Putin meeting at Osaka, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Jun said, “Given the current international landscape, the meeting among the three leaders is also of significance. As you know, China’s relations with Russia and India are showing sound momentum of growth.” While informal meetings of the BRICS and the RIC take place in all the multilateral summits, Chinese officials say the Osaka meeting assumes significance as all major countries besides India, China and Russia are facing trade and tariff-related frictions with the US.
As China is battling a trade war with US, Chinese officials hope that India, which is also facing trade frictions with the US especially over termination of its designation as a “beneficiary developing country” under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), would join the fight against Trump’s “protectionist” policies. India has recently announced retaliatory trade tariffs against the US covering 28 US products, including almonds and apples.
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