BRICS 2025: Why Xi Jinping is missing for the first time the summit supported by China

Hong Kong
Cnn
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A summit of the leaders of the Brics group of major emerging economies starts in Brazil on Sunday – but without the first chief of its most powerful member.

For the first time in more than a decade of rule, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping – who made BRICS a centerpiece of his thrust to reshape the global balance of powers – will not attend the collection of annual leaders.

The absence of XI of the two -day summit in Rio de Janeiro arrives at a critical moment for the BRICS, which owes its acronym to the first members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and since 2024 has widened to include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran.

Some members are faced with a deadline of July 9 to negotiate American prices which should be imposed by US President Donald Trump, and all are confronted with the global economic uncertainty caused by his Making an upheaval in American commercial relations – putting the club in more pressure shows solidarity.

The absence of XI means that the Chinese chief lacks a key opportunity to present China as a stable alternative leader in the United States. It is an image that Beijing has long been looking to project to the world south, And a recently raised by Trump’s passage to a “America first” policy and the American decision last month to join Israel to bomb Iranian nuclear installations.

But the Chinese leader’s decision not to attend – sending Li Qiang’s Official N ° 2 to the place – does not mean that Beijing has degraded the meaning he places on the BRICS, say observers, or that it is less important to make Beijing attempt to build groups to counterbalance Western power.

“(BRICS) is an integral part of Beijing’s efforts to ensure that he is not held by the American allies,” said Chong Ja Ian, associate professor at the National University of Singapore.

But this pressure may have decreased with Trump in power, added Chong, referring to the shaking of relations by the American president even with key partners, and for XI, the BRICS may not be “his greatest priority” when he focuses on the direction of the Homeland economy of China. Beijing can also have low expectations for major breakthroughs at the top of this year, he said.

XI is not the only head of state who should be absent from Rio.

The ally closest to the Chinese leader in the group, the Russian Vladimir Putin, will only participate in video link, for the same reason that he also joined a rally of BRICS 2023 in South Africa at a distance. Brazil, like South Africa, is a signatory of the International Criminal Court and would therefore be forced to arrest Putin for a judicial accusation alleging war crimes in Ukraine.

The absence of two heavy world strikers leaves many spotlights to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will go to Brazil both for the summit and a state visit. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa should also attend.

Some new members of the club have not yet announced their plans, although Prabowo suffered in Indonesia is expected in Rio after the greatest economy in Southeast Asia has officially joined BRICs earlier this year. The partner countries of the BRICS, some of which aspire to join the group, will also send delegations. Uncertainty remains as to whether Saudi Arabia has accepted an invitation to become a full member.

The bite of the absence of XI for the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, can be blurred by the fact that the Chinese chief went to Brazil in November for the G20 summit and a state visit, when he and Lula were trouble. The Brazilian chief also visited China in May, after attending a military parade in Moscow alongside XI.

This recent diplomacy, the low expectations for major breakthroughs at the summit of this year and an increased accent on domestic issues all probably taken into account in Xi’s decision to send Li, a commander of common self -confidence, say the observers.

China is faced with big economic challenges in the face of commercial friction with the United States – and its leaders are busy tracing a course for the five years ahead of a key political conclave expected this year.

In Rio, Li will probably be responsible for advancing priorities such as energy links between the main members of Beijing and the main members of British oil, while pushing for the extended use of Offshore and Digital Currency of China for Commerce within the Group, according to Brian Wong, an assistant professor of the University of Hong Kong, who added that the absence of XI should not be interpreted as an SNBB BRICS.

“Whether it is the Sino-Russian partnership or the desire for Beijing to project its alleged leadership of the world South, there are many BRICS + which resonates with the vision of the world of foreign policy of XI,” said Wong, using a term for the extended group.

Launched in 2009 as an economic coalition of Brazil, Russia, India and China before South Africa joined a year later, BRICS is more like the Global South response to the group of seven (G7) major economies developed.

This has taken on greater importance because countries have increased more and more for a “multipolar world” where power is more distributed – and as Beijing and Moscow have sought to strengthen their international influence alongside in -depth tensions with the West.

But the composition of the BRICS – a mixture of countries with very different political and economic systems, and with an occasional friction between them – and its recent expansion has also aroused criticism as leaving the group too unusual to be effective.

The efforts of the disparate group to speak with a single voice distinct from that of the West often become embedded in opposite opinions. A statement last month expressed a “serious concern” in the face of military strikes against Iran, but has ceased to specifically appoint the United States or Israel, the two countries that have carried out strikes.

However, the United States will arise how countries will talk about a problem that has generally united them: to move its trade and funding to national currencies – and far from the dollar. Such a denollarization is particularly attractive for member countries such as Russia and Iran, which are strongly sanctioned by the United States.

Earlier this year, among the objectives of the host duration of Brazil, Lula included “the increase in payment options” to reduce “vulnerabilities and costs”. Last year, Russia put pressure on the development of a unique cross -border payment system when it welcomed the club.

It is unlikely that it is on the negotiation table, however, this is the high objective of a “BRICS currency” – an idea suggested by Lula in 2023 which pulled the anger of Trump even if other Brics chiefs did not point out that it was a group priority.

The American president in January threatened to place “100%prices” on “apparently hostile” Brics countries if they supported a Brics currency or support another currency to replace “the powerful US Dollar”.

While countries meet in Rio, observers will follow how strident their leaders are to promote the use of national currencies at a group meeting where China is the main member, but US global economic influence is still important.