Brazil’s Lula cancels trip to BRICS summit

The president will not be able to attend the event in person due to a head injury

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will not be able to travel to Russia for the annual BRICS meeting due to an injury he sustained earlier this week.

The three-day summit in Russia’s fifth-largest city of Kazan will start on Tuesday. Lula was expected to meet with presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China on the sidelines of the event. Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira will attend the conference instead.

“President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in accordance with medical advice, will not be traveling to the BRICS summit in Kazan due to a temporary impediment to long-distance flights,” his office said in a brief statement on Sunday. It added that Lula would participate in the event by videoconference and return to his normal schedule later in the week.

The 78-year-old veteran politician was hospitalized after being injured in an unspecified incident at his residence on Saturday. According to a statement from the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo, the president received blunt trauma to the back of the head. According to local media, he had slipped in his bathroom.

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“After examination by the medical team, he was advised to avoid long-distance flights,” the hospital said. The president has since been discharged and returned home.

BRICS was initially founded in 2006 by Russia, China, India, and Brazil to boost trade and investments into each other’s economies. The group eventually grew to include nine members and expanded its agenda to security and other global issues.

“The BRICS have a unique chance to shape the trajectory of global development,” Lula said last year. “Our countries together represent a third of the world economy.”