Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on 22 October. This is reported by the official website of the Brazilian Government.

The Russian President inquired about the state of health of the Brazilian leader, who could not fly to the BRICS summit in Kazan for medical reasons. The government press service also informed that Lula da Silva’s participation in the summit would be organised via video conference.

After the conversation with the Brazilian President, Putin held a personal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS summit. During the talks, the Russian president conveyed to the Chinese leader the best wishes from his Brazilian counterpart. According to the Russian head of state, Lula da Silva very much regrets that he could not fly to the summit and intends to take part in the online format.

On this day, the XVI BRICS summit kicked off in the capital of Tatarstan, which will end on 24 October. In addition to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as well as heads of state, government and agencies of the BRICS+ countries have already arrived in Kazan.

The Kazan Summit is the key event of Russia’s BRICS Chairmanship. The summit is dedicated to the theme “Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security”.

African Times published this article in partnership with International Media Network TV BRICS