The Brics summit in Johannesburg will be hosted by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and will include Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India; Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil; and Xi Jinping, the president of China.
Dozens of leaders of other countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East will also attend, many hoping to be invited to join the bloc.
Russia will be represented by Sergei Lavrov, its foreign minister. Vladimir Putin decided not travel to Johannesburg in order to avoid forcing South Africa to chose between fulfilling conflicting obligations as hosts of the summit and as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, which would have theoretically compelled South Africa to detain the Russian leader. Putin will now attend only virtually.
The summit may see the Brics group, which includes about 40% of the world's population and a quarter of global GDP, take a clearly anti-western turn. This raises the prospect of a re-energised economic and political actor against the US and its allies.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa sought to reassure concerned observers and domestic opponents that South Africa would "not be drawn into a contest between global powers" and wanted to avoid a world that was "increasingly polarised into competing camps".
"Our decision not to align with any one of the global powers does not mean that we are neutral on matters of principle or national interest," Ramaphosa told viewers in a televised national address.
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