Xi Jinping has angrily rebuked Justin Trudeau after Canadian officials shared details of a previous meeting, highlighting the frosty relationship between the two leaders.
In a clip recorded by the media pool at the G20 summit in Indonesia, a visibly frustrated Xi pulls the Canadian prime minister aside and says it was “not appropriate” for details about a previous conversation between the two leaders to have been shared with media, suggesting Trudeau lacked “sincerity” in his approach.
“Everything we discuss has been leaked to the paper, that’s not appropriate,” Xi says to Trudeau through a translator. “And that’s not the way the conversation was conducted,” he added.
The testy exchange came a day after government sources briefed that during a previous conversation on the margins of the summit, Trudeau had raised “serious concerns” with Xi over China’s increasingly aggressive “interference activities”.
Xi’s irritation on Wednesday was a rare break with his normally carefully scripted public appearances.
Gesturing with his hands, Xi told Trudeau the two must “create the conditions first”. The pair ended their conversation by shaking hands and leaving in opposite directions.
Credit: theguardian.com
