Too early to speculate on whether President Xi would attend BRICS summit in India

New Delhi, Feb 24: Reports had indicated that China's President Xi Jinping may visit India in the later half of the year to take part in the BRICS summit, which is being hosted by New Delhi.

Reports of the visit by President Xi were triggered by the positive comments made by the Chinese spokesperson about relations with India. The spokesperson also expressed Beijing's support to host this year's summit. However there was no response to a direct question on President Xi's visit to Delhi.

However officials OneIndia spoke with said that there is no decision as yet in this regard. it is speculation and nothing has been finalised as yet. The dates of the summit are set to be decided.

Further no call has been taken as yet on whether the summit would be in the virtual or physical format.

All this would be decided only after consultations with Russia, China, South Africa and. Brazil, the official cited above said. Both President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping are not travelling outside their countries.

China on Monday backed the BRICS summit to be hosted by India this year. Beijing added that it is willing to work with India and other member states to strengthen cooperation in various fields.

The Chinese foreign ministry said that Beijing attaches great importance to the Brics cooperation mechanism and has always been committed to deepening the Brics strategic partnership and consolidating the positive momentum of Brics solidarity and cooperation.

The foreign ministry also said that China supports India's hosting of this year's Brics conference, and is willing to work with India and other Brics countries to continue to strengthen communication and cooperation in various fields, consolidate the "three-wheel drive" cooperation framework of economics, politics, and humanities.

The comments were made by foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin to a question whether the border standoff would affect the BRICS summit.

In 2021, India had assumed chairmanship of the BRICS. On February 21, External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar launched the BRICS 2021 website. The backing of summit by China comes in the backdrop of the troop disengagement in the Pangong area following multiple rounds of talks by the military commanders of both sides.