BEIJING: President Xi Jinping will attend the 15th BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa and pay a state visit to South Africa from August 21 to 24, at the invitation of President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the announcement Friday.
While in South Africa, President Xi Jinping will co-chair with President Ramaphosa the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue, Hua added.
The highly-anticipated summit will provide emerging markets and developing countries the opportunity to fully discuss challenges they face on boosting development in the post-pandemic era and will further strengthen South-South cooperation amid growing geopolitical risks, analysts said.
Xi will attend the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa and pay a state visit to South Africa from August 21 to 24, at the invitation of President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. While in South Africa, Xi will co-chair with President Ramaphosa the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.
This summit is the first offline BRICS summit held in over three years and marks the return of the BRICS summit to Africa after a five-year hiatus.
It will seek to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between BRICS and Africa and other emerging markets and developing countries and send a strong message of safeguarding multilateralism and focusing on common development, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at the press conference on Friday when talking about expectations of the upcoming summit.
Wang said that the summit will carry forward the sound momentum of cooperation from the BRICS “China Year” 2022 and blueprint a brighter future for BRICS, adding that all sides will have in-depth exchange of views on prominent global challenges, enhance coordination and collaboration in international affairs, inject stability and positive energy into today’s world fraught with uncertainties, and contribute wisdom and strength to world peace and development.
This year’s BRICS chair South Africa has invited a total of 69 countries and regions to the summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin will join other BRICS leaders via video link, media reported.
In the post-pandemic era and amid a turbulent international security situation, this year’s BRICS summit will highlight the urgent need of developing counties and emerging markets for development as well as their intention to strengthen independent cooperation and solidarity, Yang Baorong, director of the division of economy at the China-Africa Institute, said on Friday. –Agencies
