Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the G20 leaders’ summit in Rome via online, according to a statement issued by China’s foreign ministry.

He will attend the summit on October 30-31 and will make a speech at the summit, the notice said.

Apart from Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would also be attending the summit online.

Xi has not left China since early 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have confirmed that they will attend in person, while Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will send his foreign minister.

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The G20, whose countries account for 80% of global carbon emissions, is considered an important milestone before the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland, which begins on Sunday.

The two-day event will see the heads of the world’s wealthiest nations converge in Rome to discuss climate change, COVID-19 and the post-pandemic global recovery.

Xi is also not expected to attend COP26 in person, which could indicate that the world’s biggest CO2 producer has already decided that it has no more concessions to offer at the U.N. COP26 climate summit in Scotland after three major pledges since last year, climate watchers said.

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According to media reports, activists from ‘No Green Pass’ and ‘Fridays for Future’ are expected to organise demonstrations in Rome during the G20 summit.

The G20 also aims to underline that rich countries should stump up $100 billion dollars per year to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.

This goal was supposed to be achieved by 2020, according to an agreement reached in 2009, but has not been met.

(With inputs from agencies)