Bali: At the G20 summit held at the Indonesian Island, Chinese President Xi Jinping angrily rebuked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after Canadian officials shared details of a previous meeting between the two countries with the media.
In a clip recorded by the media pool at the summit, 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, the Guardian reported.
"Everything we discuss has been leaked to the paper, that's not appropriate, and that's not the way the conversation was conducted," Xi says to Trudeau through a translator.
The heated 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.
"In Canada, we believe in free, open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have," Trudeau said, interrupting Xi's translator.
"We will continue to look to work constructively together but there will be things we will disagree on."
Gesturing with his hands, Xi told Trudeau the two must "create the conditions first", the Guardian reported.
The pair ended their conversation by shaking hands and leaving in opposite directions, with the Canadian PM looking chastened from the encounter.
The uncomfortable exchange, and the previous conversation, followed repeated warnings from Trudeau and other officials that China had attempted to undermine Canada's democracy, said the Guardian report.
- IANS inputs