Xi, Putin to skip BRICS Summit in Brazil
Beijing/Moscow, Jun 25 (PTI): 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.
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Kasaragod: Government Medical College gets first MBBS student from Rajasthan
Kasaragod: The Government Medical College, which recently secured the National Medical Commission’s approval, admitted its first MBBS student on Monday, with Gurwinder Singh from Alwar in Rajasthan becoming the first of the 50 students in the inaugural batch of the College.
Singh received a warm welcome into the College with sweets by Principal-in-Charge Dr. KK Santosh Kumar and Medical Superintendent Dr Praveen. The admission procedure was formally completed with the recording of his attendance, reports On Manorama.
The College has seven seats reserved for candidates from the All-India rank list, and Singh qualified for a seat in the College under the All-India Medical Entrance quota.
Unlike the other government medical colleges in the state, where classes started this week after the admission of students during the first round of counseling, the Kasaragod Medical College had to wait for approval from the National Medical Commission. The College received the approval and began enrolling students after conclusion of counseling.
The classes will begin on September 30, after completion of Phase 2 of allotment. The first batch students are currently provided temporary hostel facilities at Cherkkala.
While the second student under the All-India rank list is expected to join the College today, the authorities have said they cannot guarantee how long the new students will remain, adding that some students may opt to move to other colleges if they are allotted seats there.
