Russia to postpone SCO, BRICS summits — Kremlin

MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. The summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS group, which were expected to take place in Russia in July, will be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Wednesday. "Given the coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions, the Organizing Committee responsible for making preparations for and handling Russia’s 2019-2020 chairmanship of the SCO and its 2020 BRICS chairmanship has decided to postpone the BRICS summit and the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg on July 21-23," the statement reads. According to the Kremlin press service, "new dates for the summits will be set depending on the epidemiological situation in member countries and the world." BRICS is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, established in 2001, brings together China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are SCO observers, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey are dialogue partners. Coronavirus pandemic In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 5,701,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 352,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 2,445,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe. Read more