Few major Western leaders to attend Chinese summit
BEIJING — Leaders of 28 countries are set to attend a Chinese summit next month showcasing President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative, but few will hail from major Western countries.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday that Vladimir Putin of Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy are among those slated to appear next month in Beijing to discuss Xi’s “One Belt, One Road” program to stitch together the Eurasian continent with infrastructure investment.
The May 14-15 summit is seen as a measure of China’s international prestige at a time when Xi has positioned China as a rising outward-looking regional power, and as questions have arisen over President Donald Trump’s commitment to maintaining the United States’ traditional global leadership.
Wang said leaders from France and Germany will not attend due to their domestic election schedules, not because they snubbed China.