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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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
