PM Modi’s State Dinner Invitation at BRICS Summit from Brazilian President Lula da Silva is a reason for Chinese President Xi-Jinping’s absence from BRICS Summit

On July 6-7,2025 ,Brazil will host will host the 17th BRICS Summit at the Museum of Modern Art( Museum de Arte Morderna /MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. This is the first time that the Chinese President is going to skip the BRICS Summit. This was first reported in the South China Post.

President Lula da Silva went to Beijing and invited the Chinese President to attend the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, thinking that the Chinese President would reciprocate his invitation. Beijing has announced that President Xi will not be able to the Rio summit due to scheduling problem, but many expert believe there may be other reasons behind this.

According to South China Morning Post, the state dinner extended to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have tipped the balance. The optics of such moment – Modi and Lula in the spotlight – could make Xi, “a supporting actor”. Adding to this, Chinese official have already pointed out that President Xi and President Lula have already met twice in under a year – first during a state visit to Brasilia in November 2023,and again at the China-CELAC forum in Beijing in May 2024.They thinks that this engagement less necessary.

According to diplomats, there will be a discomfort, PM Modi will be the key figure of this multilateral platforms. A state dinner invitation to him -on Lula’s home turf – added weight to impression. The Modi-Xi dynamic has remained strained since the 2020 Himalayan Border clashes .While the two met October 2024 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia.

The Brazilian foreign minister has not commented officially on Xi absence, but the frustration is clear. China, for its part ,continue to voice support for Brazil’s BRICS presidency.

What is BRICS?

The countries that include BRICS – Brazil ,Russia ,India ,China and South Africa ,as well as five new members are informal grouping of emerging economic hoping to increase their sway global order. Established in 2009 ,BRICS was founded on the promise that international institution were overly dominated by western powers and had ceased to serve developing countries. The bloc has sought to coordinate its members’ economic and diplomatic policies, found new financial institutions, and reduce dependence on the U.S dollar. It represents more than a quarter of the global economy and almost half of world’s population. It has a very significant role in geo-politics.