Why Did Xi Jinping Skip the BRICS Summit?
It’s not just BRICS – foreign travel by Xi, and even by his premier, is way down across the board.
On July 6 and 7, the leaders of the BRICS nations gathered for their annual summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But there was a notable figure missing: China’s President Xi Jinping. Since he assumed office in 2013, Xi had attended every single BRICS summit without fail (including the summits forced into virtual format by the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-22). That streak was broken this year, when China’s Premier Li Qiang attended in Xi’s stead.
Why?
Officially, the explanation was a scheduling conflict. Instead of traveling to Brazil, Xi went on an inspection tour of Shanxi Province, but there was nothing specific about the timing. Many analysts thus sought an alternative explanation for Xi’s absence from the BRICS summit.
One explanation held that Xi simply saw no need to travel to Brazil. He had just visited in November 2024, when Rio hosted the G-20 summit, and Brazilian President Lula had been in China in May 2025. Perhaps Xi and his foreign policy team reasoned there were limited gains to be had from another state visit so soon after these exchanges.
It’s also possible that Xi meant to signal solidarity with his “best friend,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opted to stay home out of an abundance of caution, given the ICC warrant out for his arrest. Certainly Xi’s absence shifted the focus away from Putin’s.
There was also speculation that perhaps Xi’s decision to skip the summit was a sign of waning interest in BRICS, which has become less China-centric amid a wave of expansions that doubled the grouping’s original membership. But based on official statements, it certainly doesn’t seem like Beijing has given up on BRICS.
Just ahead of the summit, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning proclaimed that BRICS “offers the most important platform for solidarity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries in the world.” She added that the grouping is “an important force for realizing an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”
China still sees BRICS as a useful tool for pushing South-South solidarity and crafting an alternative world order. If Beijing is indeed worried about its influence waning in the group, skipping a summit is hardly the solution to that problem.
In seeking an explanation, it’s important to note that BRICS is not the only important diplomatic invitation Xi has declined in recent years. The China-EU summit held in late July was originally supposed to be in Brussels – the 2024 iteration was in Beijing, making it the EU’s turn to host. But Xi reportedly told the Europeans that he wouldn’t be traveling to Belgium, so the summit was shifted to China’s capital yet again.
Both the BRICS and the EU summits point to a broader trend: Xi has sharply curtailed travel since he resumed overseas trips after the pandemic. From 2013 to 2019, China’s president visited an average of nearly 14 foreign countries every year. Since 2022, that average has dropped to under six.