US President Barack Obama has been delivered a calculated diplomatic snub in Hangzhou, China, where global leaders are convening for the G20 summit. The problems began as soon as Obama’s plane landed in Hangzhou on Saturday. Unlike Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Brazilian President Michel Temer and British Prime Minister Theresa May, Obama did not have the red carpet to walk on when he stepped off the plane.

The US president was also forced to leave Air Force One through a little-used exit in the plane’s belly, only used on high-security trips, after Chinese officials failed to provide the rolling staircase. In addition, there were heated altercations between Chinese and US officials after reporters were met by a line of bright blue tape held by Chinese security guards, who did not let them watch Obama disembark. A White House staff member protested to this behavior, but one Chinese official shouted back, “This is our country! This is our airport!”

“The reception that President Obama and his staff got when they arrived here Saturday afternoon was bruising, even by Chinese standards,” according to The New York Times. Reacting to the incident, Obama later said the row between the US and Chinese officials should not be overblown.  “I wouldn’t overcrank the significance” of the tensions, he said at a news conference on Sunday. But Mexico’s former ambassador to China, Jorge Guajardo, believes the reception was part of a calculated snub.

“These things do not happen by mistake. Not with the Chinese,” Guajardo, who hosted presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón during his time in Beijing, told The Guardian. “I’ve dealt with the Chinese for six years. I’ve done these visits. I took Xi Jinping to Mexico. I received two Mexican presidents in China. I know exactly how these things get worked out. It’s down to the last detail in everything. It’s not a mistake. It’s not.”

In another instance, when President Xi Jinping took Obama on a leisurely stroll following dinner on Saturday, Chinese security officials cut the number of American journalists who wanted to see the stroll to three from the original six, and then to just one reporter. “This is our arrangement,” a Chinese official explained to his American counterpart. “Your arrangement keeps changing,” the American replied.

In his meeting with the Chinese president, Obama urged him to uphold China’s legal obligations and highlighted Washington’s commitments to its regional allies. “The president reaffirmed that the United States will work with all countries in the region to uphold the principles of international law, unimpeded lawful commerce, and freedom of navigation and over-flight,” the White House said on Saturday.

A Hague-based court of arbitration ruled in July that China’s claims to sovereignty over the disputed areas or resources in the South China Sea “had no legal basis.” China, however, dismissed the ruling, insisting that the tribunal had no jurisdiction over the issue.

In his talks with Obama, Xi said that China “will persist in peacefully resolving disputes through consultations with parties directly involved.” He called on the US to “play a constructive role” in regional peace and stability.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam as well as the Philippines.

The issue has been a source of tension between China, the US, and regional countries, which are seeking control of trade routes and mineral deposits there.

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The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has marked 2016 as the deadliest year to date for refugees who venture the perilous North Africa-Italy route to reach Europe. “So far this year, one person has died for every 42 crossing from North Africa to Italy, compared to one in every 52 last year. This makes 2016 to date the deadliest year on record in the central Mediterranean,” said UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler in a statement during a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.

He added that the likelihood of losing life on the treacherous Libya-Italy route are “ten times” greater than when sailing from Turkey to Greece.  The coasts of Libya have turned to a launch pad for people seeking to reach Europe. The unsafe rubber boats that carry hundreds of refugees often capsize off Libya, especially near its western coast.

Human traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos gripping Libya since the 2011 to boost their lucrative business.

According to the UNHCR, since last year’s tragic death of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi, who drowned near Turkish shores while trying to reach Europe with his family, 4,176 other people have lost their lives or gone missing in the Mediterranean. This makes an average of 11 men, women and children, drowning every day during the last 12 months.

Spindler went on to say that a total of 281,740 people had made the dangerous crossing to Europe over the first eight months of this year, adding that the number of refugees arriving in Greece from Turkey had dropped greatly from 67,000 in January to 3,437 in August after the implementation of the EU-Turkey refugee deal.

He also said that the number of people arriving in Italy had remained relatively constant, with some 115,000 asylum seekers stepping foot on the Italian soil as of the end of August, compared to 116,000 over the same period last year.

“These numbers highlight the urgent need for states to increase pathways for admission of refugees, such as resettlement, private sponsorship, family reunification and student scholarship schemes, among others, so they do not have to resort to dangerous journeys and the use of smugglers,” Spindler added.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. The conflicts they are fleeing are usually instigated by the very same European and non-European countries they seek to finally settle in.

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