China's President Xi Jinping is not expected to attend the G20 summit in India next week and will send Premier Li Qiang in his stead, a senior EU official said Thursday.
"My last information... was that Xi didn't intend to travel, it would be the prime minister," the official told reporters in Brussels ahead of the September 9-10 summit in New Delhi.
Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rare face-to-face talks at the BRICS group summit in South Africa last week, but tensions remain high between the Asian giants.
On Tuesday, India issued China a "strong protest" after an official map published by Beijing appeared to lay claim to a large tract of land in the Himalayas over which Delhi claims sovereignty.
European officials hope the G20 summit in New Delhi will be an opportunity to lobby powers like India and China to agree stronger criticism of fellow BRICS member Russia in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.