July BRICS and SCO leaders summits in Russia are postponed

ST. PETERSBURG, May 27, 2020, Pan Pacific Agency. BRICS and SCO leaders’ meeting that earlier scheduled for July 21-23, 2020 in St. Petersburg, is postponed due to the pandemic restrictions, the Roscongress fund informed today. “New dates for the summits will be determined depending on the further development of the epidemiological situation in the states of associations and in the world as a whole,” it added.

Russian govt as BRICS chair this year “is taking unprecedented efforts to plan the postponement of more than 100 events included in the timeline for the year of the Russian presidency of the BRICS,” Pavel Knyazev, the deputy director at the Department of foreign policy planning Russia’s Ministry of foreign affairs, said earlier. “For the first time in the BRICS practice, a lot of meetings have already been held or will be held in videoconference mode. For officials, this format isn’t easy,” he added.

The chairmanship of the BRICS group passed from Brazil to Russia in 2020. BRICS is an informal group of states comprising the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa. The 11th BRICS summit was held in Brasilia last year.