Bolsonaro participates in the BRICS summit this Tuesday; meeting will be virtual for the first time | Politics

The meeting is scheduled for 8 am (Brasilia time) and, due to the new coronavirus pandemic, it will be through virtual means, similar to what happened at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

International health authorities recommend detachment and social isolation as ways to prevent the spread of the virus.

The block was founded in 2006 and was called Bric at the time. In 2011, South Africa joined the group, which was renamed Brics. Since 2009, the leaders of the countries have met annually.

The last Brics meeting took place in November 2019, in Brasilia. On the occasion, President Jair Bolsonaro said that the government’s foreign policy “has its eyes on the world”, but puts Brazil “first” (remember in the video below).

According to the Russian government, which currently heads the BRICS, the leaders of the bloc will discuss issues of internal cooperation and the international agenda at the summit on Tuesday.

The meeting takes place in the middle of the race for the vaccine against the new coronavirus. Almost a year ago, the first cases of the virus appeared in Wuhan (China). In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic.

In Brazil, as of this Monday, more than 166,000 deaths from Covid-19, a disease caused by the coronavirus, had already been registered. Worldwide, the pandemic has already caused more than 1.3 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

China and Russia are among the countries trying to develop a vaccine against the virus. In Brazil, the Butantan Institute in São Paulo develops the Coronavac vaccine in partnership with the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. In Paraná, the local government and Russia signed an agreement to develop the Sputnik V vaccine.

Another hot topic on the international stage is the election of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States.