China to boycott G20 meeting in Kashmir

Kathmandu: China has said that it will not attend the next week’s G20 Tourism Working Group meeting scheduled to take place in the ‘disputed territory’ of Kashmir.

‘China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory’, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular press conference on Friday, ‘We will not attend such meetings.’

The third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting is scheduled to take place in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir from May 22-24. 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.

Pakistan has also condemned India for holding the event in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region that has been disputed between New Delhi and Islamabad.

India-Pakistan relations have been frozen since 2019 when New Delhi changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir state, ended its special status and converted it into a federal territory. Both countries claim the region in its entirety but only govern parts of it. They have fought three wars since independence over Kashmir.