China's Leader Xi Jinping to Attend BRICS Summit in Russia in October

(Patria) - Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed yesterday.

The meeting comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the global influence of the West, reports AP, as relayed by RSE.

Xi's visit to Russia will be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

China claims to be taking a neutral position in the conflict, but has supported the Kremlin's claims that Russia's action was provoked by the West, and continues to supply key components needed by Moscow to produce weapons, according to AP.

Wang Yi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg yesterday, and the two welcomed the ties between the two countries.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said that Xi "joyfully accepted" Putin's invitation to attend the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October.

Putin, in turn, announced that the two will also meet bilaterally in Kazan and discuss various aspects of Russian-Chinese relations, which are "developing quite successfully" and "in all directions".

Xi last visited Russia in March 2023, and Putin reciprocated with his trip to China in October of that year.

The two leaders have since also met in Beijing in May, where Putin made his first foreign trip of his fifth presidential term, and in Kazakhstan in July.

Following the launch of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is becoming increasingly economically dependent on China as Western sanctions cut off its access to much of the international trading system.

Increased trade between China and Russia, which totaled $240 billion last year, has helped the country mitigate some of the worst impacts of the sanctions.

Moscow has redirected most of its energy exports to China and relied on Chinese firms to import high-tech components for the Russian military industry to bypass Western sanctions.

The two countries have also deepened their military ties in the last two years.

BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and South Africa joined in 2010. The alliance has recently expanded and now includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia has said it is considering joining, and Azerbaijan and Malaysia have officially applied.

BRICS has a stated goal of amplifying the voice of major emerging economies to counterbalance the Western-led global order.

Its founding members have called for a "more just world order" and reform of international institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.