New Delhi: India Thursday said it sent invitations to leaders of all the G20 member nations, invitee countries and international organisations for the upcoming annual summit of the grouping to be held in September.
At the same time, it was non-committal on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the summit.
There have been speculation about Putin’s in-person participation in the G20 summit in Delhi after South Africa said the Russian president will not travel to that country to attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg next month.
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine. South Africa is a signatory to the ICC.
In a statement, South Africa said an agreement on Putin not attending the summit was taken as part of mutual understanding and that it came about following a series of consultations.
Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin will attend the summit via video conferencing and that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be present at the venue.
At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi did not give a direct reply when asked whether Putin will attend the G20 summit.
“At this point, all I can reiterate is what we have said earlier that invitations have gone out to all the G20 members, invitee countries and international organisations,” he said.
“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,” he said.
“I don’t think that it would be fair to look at it that way but yes, we are looking forward to welcoming the leaders here for our G20 New Delhi leaders’ summit in September,” Bagchi added.
India is the current chair of the G20.
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.
The members represent around 85 per cent 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).
PTI