Lula and Modi Take Center Stage as BRICS Begins With Xi Absent
Cooperation areas
Source: Bloomberg | Original Published At: 2025-07-06 15:10:59 UTC
Key Points
- Brazil's Lula hosts BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro
- Xi Jinping's absence noted during official photo session
- Modi and Ramaphosa positioned prominently beside Lula
- Russia and Iran represented by foreign ministers at event margins
Unlike Brazil’s Group of 20 summit, no one was late or missing when leaders of the world’s major emerging-market nations gathered for a family photo Sunday in Rio de Janeiro — at least not accidentally.
Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , hosting the two-day meeting of BRICS countries, took center stage, flanked by South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and India’s Narendra Modi on either side. Other representatives from the newly-expanded bloc fanned out from there, with the most controversial international attendees — the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran — on either flank.