Xi and Putin to join BRICS trade summit that PM Modi decided to skip

China has confirmed that President Xi Jinping will take part in a virtual BRICS summit convened by Brazil to discuss Donald Trump’s trade policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will skip the meeting but will send a senior representative instead.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters on Friday that Modi would not be attending. Instead, the South Asian nation will be represented by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also take part in the summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week, according to Russian news agency Tass.

Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called the gathering to discuss not only the trade tariffs imposed by Trump, but also to rally fellow heads of major emerging market nations in support of multilateralism, Bloomberg News reported last week, citing people familiar with the plan.

BRICS, which includes South Africa, has increasingly drawn the ire of Trump as it expands with new members from Asia and the Middle East. In July, the US president threatened to impose additional tariffs on any country aligning itself with the group’s “anti-American policies.” He has also repeatedly criticized efforts by BRICS members to boost trade in their own currencies and bypass the dollar.

But Trump’s tariffs have further encouraged BRICS nations to increase ties with Beijing.

During a week of high-stakes diplomacy, Xi hosted Putin and Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, and welcomed dozens of other world leaders including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to Beijing for a Sept. 3 military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

New Delhi has tread carefully in recent days in its dealings with Washington, after Trump appeared to soften his tone toward India following weeks of friction over US tariffs of 50% on Indian goods, as per Bloomberg.

Monday’s virtual meeting of BRICS leaders is scheduled to last only a couple of hours, starting 5:30 pm IST, according to a Brazilian government official familiar with the plan.

Speeches will be closed to the press, and it will be up to each leader to decide whether to publish their remarks, the official said. There will be no joint statement at the end of the meeting, they added.

(With agency inputs)