China opted out of attending the G20 summit in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. Over 50 participants, including those from the US, took part in the G20 Research Innovation Initiated Gathering, which witnessed a high turnout overall, according to official sources. The local legislative body was also visited by the delegates.
China doesn't recognise India's sovereignty over Arunachal and claims that it's a part of south Tibet. It is unknown at this time whether China has formally protested the meeting to India. Beijing has so far backed India's G20 presidency, and earlier this month Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang paid a visit to India for the conference of foreign ministers.
Before it took over the G20 presidency last year, India has insisted that it will have meetings in all 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Recently, Ruchira Kamboj, India's ambassador to the UN, reiterated this promise. India will host a G20 meeting on culture in Jammu and Kashmir in May, according to official sources. Pakistan has been lobbying China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, all G20 member-states to stop India from hosting the proposed meeting in Srinagar.
Pakistan sees any proposal for a G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir as designed to seek "international legitimacy" and said last year that the member states should be " fully cognisant of the imperatives of law and justice" and reject it outright. China backed Pakistan as it asked relevant parties "to avoid complicating the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with any unilateral move” and said G20 was a premier forum meant for global economic cooperation.