Brazil is hosting the 17th summit  (Brazil i)   

Beijing/Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not travel to Brazil    (Brazil i)   for the BRICS summit scheduled to be held early next month. While there has been no official announcement yet, media reports suggest that Xi is planning to skip the BRICS summit, which, if confirmed, will be his first absence from the bloc’s meeting in more than a decade. Instead, Chinese Premier and Xi’s confidant Li Qiang will attend the summit,

In Moscow, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov announced on Wednesday, “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Russia at the upcoming BRICS summit in Brazil, while Russian President Vladimir Putin will join the event via video link.”

Brazil hosting the 17th summit

Brazil, as the current chair of BRICS, is hosting its regular 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7. BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bloc has been expanded with five additional members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In 2023, President Putin skipped the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa due to an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the request of Ukraine. During a media briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun declined to comment on reports about Xi’s decision and said that information about China’s presence at the BRICS summit would be released in due course.

However, according to the information received at the moment, Jinping and Vladimir Putin’s not attending the BRICS summit remains in discussion.