Chinese President Xi Jinping did not appear at the first BRICS summit in Johannesburg, and there was no explanation for his absence.
His speech was read by China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. The speech said that the Chinese economy is resilient and that the fundamentals for its long-term growth remain unchanged.
Although he arrived in South Africa on Monday evening, Xi skipped the first day of the summit, but no explanation was given from his team, the "South Morning China Post" reports.
The director general of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, Bonnie Glaser, wrote on the social network X (Twitter) that the absence of the Chinese premier could mean that something is wrong.
Jorge Guajardo, Mexico's former ambassador to Beijing, said Xi's absence should be big news in the media.
"An unannounced absence, especially at a multilateral forum that the PRC rarely misses, is indeed newsworthy." "Something is definitely wrong," Guajardo said.
Xi met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and was expected to attend a dinner hosted by his host, but the Chinese president did not show up.
Messages from BRICS leaders
The leaders of the leading countries of the BRICS group sent messages that indicate the economic and political relationship of those countries with more than three billion people of the total world population towards other groups and the leading economies of the world.
The economies of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa - surpass the G7 countries in terms of purchasing power parity, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video address to the participants of the BRICS Business Forum, reports TASS.
"In terms of purchasing power parity, the 'five' bypasses the Group of Seven," Putin said and emphasized that the forecast for that ratio for 2023 is 31,5 percent to 30 percent. The Russian president pointed out that the share of the BRICS countries, which make up more than three billion people of the world's total population, reached almost 26 percent of the world's gross national income.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva assessed that the emerging BRICS group does not intend to challenge other international coalitions such as the G7 or the United States of America, but to "organize" the countries of the so-called global south. BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - make up more than 40 percent of the world's population, and expansion to new countries is expected to be discussed at the three-day summit in South Africa.
ZS/FoNet/RTV
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