China on Wednesday said Premier Li Qiang will attend the BRICS summit in Brazil later this week, confirming reports that President Xi Jinping will skip the meeting of the emerging economies for the first time since he took over power 12 years ago.
Li will attend the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 5 to 8 upon invitation, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here.
She, however, parried a question on why Xi, who never missed a BRICS summit during his 12-year tenure in power, decided to skip the event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Rio summit.
BRICS consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has been expanded with five additional members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
The BRICS summit at Kazan in Russia last year became significant as both Modi and Xi met there, breaking the four-year deadlock over the frozen bilateral ties due to the standoff at eastern Ladakh.
After their meeting, both sides agreed to revive various bilateral dialogue mechanisms.
Following the Modi-Xi talks, the two sides held a series of meetings in the last few months, aimed at normalising the bilateral relations.
In view of Xi's decision to skip the Rio summit, the next opportunity for the Xi-Modi meeting could be the SCO summit to be held in China if the Prime Minister attends it.
China, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, plans to hold the summit later this year.
About the BRICS summit, Mao said the grouping serves as the most important platform for solidarity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries and represents a key force in advancing an equal and orderly multipolar world and inclusive economic globalisation.
She said this year's summit is the first since the accession of new member Indonesia and 10 partner countries, with several international and regional organisations from other emerging markets and developing nations also invited to attend the event.
She said China looks forward to working with all parties to strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership, contribute to upholding multilateralism, promoting common development, improving global governance, and driving high-quality development of the BRICS cooperation framework.
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