Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Beijing informed the Brazilian government that the Chinese delegation to the summit will be led by Prime Minister Li Qiang, News.Az reports, citing the South China Morning Post.
The Chinese president will not show up because he has already met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva twice in less than a year: first at the G20 summit in Brazil last November and then during a conference called China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that took place in Beijing in May.
Chinese officials haven’t confirmed the report. According to the SCMP, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that “information related to participation in the summit will be provided in due course.”.