South African officials have confirmed that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit their country next week and attend the Brics conference while there.
Brics, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is sometimes viewed as a replacement for the G7 group of industrialised nations.
After a state visit to Russia in March, Mr. Xi will be travelling abroad for the second time this year.
It comes as the heads of the Brics states are scheduled to meet next week and discuss prospective membership expansion. Several African nations, including Algeria, Egypt, and Ethiopia, have previously expressed a desire to join the union.
Questions about whether the president of Russia would personally attend the conference initially cast a shadow over it; however, the presidency of South Africa later clarified that he would not.
Because South Africa is a signatory to the ICC and is consequently obligated to assist in his arrest, if Mr. Putin had left Russian territory, he would have been subject to an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest order because of the war in Ukraine.