Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday opens an annual summit of BRICS leaders that already has been upstaged by North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons provocation.
XIAMEN: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (Sep 4) opens an annual summit of BRICS leaders that already has been upstaged by North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons provocation.
The BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – had gathered in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen hoping to counter accusations that the group of big emerging economies was drifting apart and becoming irrelevant.
But North Korea stole the spotlight on Sunday by announcing it had detonated a powerful hydrogen bomb and claiming it could fit the device on a long-range missile, dramatically raising the stakes in its standoff with the world.
The nuclear test came just before Xi took the stage for a pre-BRICS address in Xiamen, timing that seemed deliberate and will doubt angered Beijing, which swiftly condemned the explosion.
The summit includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Brazil’s Michel Temer and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma.
BRICS was already struggling to live down doubts about its own cohesion that have spiked since nuclear-armed China and India engaged in a protracted standoff over a disputed Himalayan region.
They backed off last week – perhaps to avoid ruining the summit – but the issue remains tense and eyes will be on the interplay between Modi and Xi on Monday.
