China’s Xi Jinping became the latest global leader to say he will skip this month’s G20 meeting, a blow for South Africa as it prepares to host the bloc’s first summit on the continent.
Xi’s decision means the gathering will lack the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies — US President Donald Trump announced this month that no American officials would attend over South Africa’s alleged mistreatment of its white population — while the presidents of Argentina and Mexico will also be missing, and Russia’s leader cannot attend because of an international arrest warrant.
Xi, like other global leaders, has shifted to “home-court diplomacy,” Bloomberg reported, prioritizing bilateral meetings over multilateral institutions.