A day after Russia cancelled the scheduled visit of President Vladimir Putin to South Africa's BRICS Summit, it has been widely discussed whether the leader would attend the upcoming G20 Summit in India or not.
Notably, G20 or the Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies. The members represent around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).
India has already sent invitations
Responding to the speculations, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that India has already sent the invitations to the leaders for the mega event. He added that India is looking forward to welcoming their participation in the G20 Summit scheduled in the national capital this September. Bagchi said he cannot issue a response on any particular leader.
"At this point, all I can reiterate is what we have said earlier that invitations have gone out to all the G20 members as well as the invitee countries, the international organisations and all the invitee international organisations. This is a physical summit and we would hope that all the invitees are able to participate in person for the summit.
"There have been confirmations I understand but again I don't have any specific response on any particular leader, yes or no, and I don't think it would be fair to look at it that way. But, yes, we are looking forward to welcoming the leaders here for our G20 Leaders Summit, New Delhi Leaders' Summit in September," he said.
The Russian delegation at the G20 leaders' forum in Bali, Indonesia last year was headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In 2020 and 2021 Putin attended the G20 summits via video link.
