On Tuesday, the Kremlin retracted its previous statements that referred to Saudi Arabia as a member of the BRICS group, leaving uncertainty regarding the country’s participation in the upcoming BRICS summit in Russia next week.

While Saudi Arabia has received an invitation to join BRICS, it has not yet completed the formal accession process. Last week, however, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov had identified Saudi Arabia as a member and indicated that its foreign minister would be present at the summit in Kazan.

When asked to clarify Saudi Arabia’s position within BRICS, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, “The summit is set to occur, and we will provide further details regarding Saudi Arabia’s representation, including whether it will participate in this summit, and we will draw conclusions from that.”