China to skip G20 meet in Srinagar, calls J-K 'disputed'

China on Friday said it will not attend the planned G20 tourism working group meeting in Jammu and Kashmir next week, asserting that it is ”firmly opposed” to holding such meetings in the "disputed territory".

China is a close ally of Pakistan.

India will host the third G20 tourism working group meeting in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, from May 22 to May 24.

The G20 meeting in Srinagar is a "big opportunity" for Jammu and Kashmir to showcase its true potential, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

Singh said such an international event taking place in Srinagar would send a positive message in the country and across the globe.

”China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing in response to a question.

”We will not attend such meetings,” he added.

Islamabad and Beijing have previously made unwarranted references to the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

India has previously rejected the statements from Beijing and Islamabad on Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have consistently rejected such statements and all parties concerned are well aware of our clear position on these matters. The Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union territory of Ladakh are and always will be integral and inalienable parts of India. No other country has a locus standi to comment on the same," the ministry of external affairs has remarked before on comments by Pakistan and China.

India and China are also locked in a lingering border standoff in eastern Ladakh for three years.

The bilateral relationship came under severe strain following the deadly clash in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in June 2020.

India has maintained that the bilateral relationship cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border area.