China’s leader, Xi Jinping, unexpectedly skipped a scheduled speech at a key multilateral business forum in South Africa on Tuesday. Xi arrived in Johannesburg for the Brics summit on Monday evening on what is only his second international trip this year, after visiting Moscow in March. He was met on the airport tarmac by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. According to the summit schedule, Xi was expected to attend the forum and deliver remarks alongside other leaders on Tuesday. But instead his speech was read out by his commerce minister,…
Tag: Brics
Putin says Brics should become trading bloc representing ‘global majority’
Vladimir Putin has told a summit of the Brics group of countries in South Africa, that it should become a trading bloc representing the “global majority”. However, differences among the group – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have become apparent at the summit over accepting new members, and whether to turn Brics into a geopolitical counterweight to the west. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, insisted on Tuesday that it was not the group’s aim to compete with western institutions. “We do not want to…
Brics group looks to expand at summit despite divisions among key members
Leaders from developing countries representing almost half the world’s population including China and Russia are to meet in South Africa for a key summit aimed at reinforcing their alliance as a counterweight to the west. The Brics grouping summit in Johannesburg, which starts on Tuesday, will be hosted by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and brings together the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, as well the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Dozens of leaders of other countries in Africa, Asia and…