Beijing/Moscow | Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not travel to Brazil for the BRICS Summit scheduled for early next month.

Although there is no official announcement yet, media reports suggested that Xi plans to skip the BRICS Summit, which, if confirmed, will be his first-ever absence from the meeting of the bloc in over a decade.

Instead, Chinese Premier and Xi’s confidant Li Qiang will take part in the summit, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

In Moscow, Kremlin Foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov announced on Wednesday: “Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will represent Russia at the upcoming BRICS summit in Brazil, while Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the event via video link.”

Brazil, as the current rotating chair of BRICS, is hosting its regular 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7.

The BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bloc has been expanded with five additional members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In 2023, President Putin skipped the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, due to an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at Ukraine's request.

Brazil, like South Africa, is a signatory of ICC's Rome Statute and is obliged to act on its warrants.

In Beijing, during the media briefing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun declined to comment on the reports about Xi’s decision, saying that information on China’s attendance at the BRICS summit would be released in due course.