Xi Jinping To Skip BRICS Summit For First Time; Lula’s State Dinner Invite To PM Modi May Have Played A Role: Report

Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend next week’s BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, marking his first-ever absence from the gathering of leading emerging economies, the South China Morning Post reported, citing officials familiar with the matter.

The BRICS summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro on 6 and 7 July.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected to arrive in Brazil in the days leading up to the event.

Beijing reportedly informed the Brazilian government that Xi had a scheduling conflict. Instead, Premier Li Qiang is expected to lead the Chinese delegation, as he did at the G20 summit in India in 2023.

Xi’s recent meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — once during a state visit to Brasília last November and again in May during the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing — were cited as reasons for his absence, according to the report.

While Xi participated virtually during the pandemic-era summits in 2020 and 2021, he has never entirely skipped a BRICS meeting.

Last year in South Africa, his absence from a scheduled speech raised eyebrows when Commerce Minister Wang Wentao appeared in his stead without any official explanation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that information about Xi's participation in the summit will be shared at the "appropriate time".

Guo added that China supported Brazil’s BRICS presidency and sought to “promote deeper cooperation” among its members.

However, Brazilian officials have reportedly expressed frustration over Xi’s absence.

According to a source cited in the SCMP report, Lula’s May visit to Beijing was intended as a goodwill gesture and that expectations were high for Xi’s reciprocal attendance.

“In a volatile and turbulent world, BRICS nations maintain their strategic resolve and work together for global peace, stability and development,”the source was quoted as saying by SCMP.

According to the report, there are speculation that Xi’s decision might also have been influenced by Lula’s invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner following the summit — a move that some interpret as potentially diminishing Xi’s perceived prominence at the event.

Xi’s absence had been the subject of speculation since February, when Lula’s top foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim raised the issue during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

At the time, Amorim emphasised the importance of Xi’s participation, recalling that former President Hu Jintao had attended the inaugural BRICS summit in Brazil despite a major earthquake at home.

Amorim added that Xi’s attendance was especially important given the global context, referring to the “breaking of international rules” with “[the US] leaving the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization.”

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