BEIJING: President Xi Jinping will chair the summit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.
The event will be preceded and followed by two other virtual meetings to foster economic ties between the countries. The follow-up event on June 24 aims to build sustainable economic relations between the BRICS countries as well as other emerging economies.
While Russia has been facing immense pressure such as economic sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, the BRICS nations – except Brazil – have abstained from several United Nations votes condemning Russia.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro highlighted the country’s neutrality, while Brazil’s ambassador to the UN voted in favour of condemning Russia’s invasion.
On Wednesday, Xi had a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during which he reaffirmed his support for Russia on issues of sovereignty and security.
China has also repeatedly urged Western countries not to sanction Russia.
Just a month before Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Xi and Putin met in Beijing during the Winter Olympics, where Xi said there were “no limits” to the cooperation between the two countries, although it is unclear if he knew about Putin’s plans.
The 14th annual summit for the BRICS leaders is to be held at a time when European countries are stepping up their pressure on Russia. On the other hand, Russia is trying to forge economic and financial deals with other countries to help the country buffer the blow caused by US and European economic sanctions.
The BRICS countries have been discussing different initiatives to move away from the US dollar. Russia is keen to accelerate the progress after it was expelled from the SWIFT international bank transfer system.
The sanctions have frozen half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, which stood at around US$600 billion.
Earlier this month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called on the BRICS countries to coordinate measures to stabilise the economic situation, saying global monetary tightening and sanctions could cause global stagflation and a food crisis. –Agencies
