Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends the 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Nov. 2, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Russia announced on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has forced it to postpone two international summits set for Saint Petersburg in July.

Officials responsible for the BRICS (BRICS refers to five major emerging countries, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits "decided to postpone" both events scheduled for July 21-23 in Russia's second city, according to a statement on the Kremlin's website.

The decision was made "taking into account the global coronavirus pandemic and the associated temporary restrictive measures," it added.

The summits would have brought together leaders of the BRICS countries. 

The last BRICS summit was held in November in Brazil, before the outbreak of the pandemic.

It would have also convened leaders of the SCO countries, which include Russia, China, India, Pakistan and several Central Asian countries.

The Kremlin said new dates would be decided depending on the viral situation of countries participating in the summits "and in the world as a whole."

President Vladimir Putin said this week the peak of the pandemic had passed in Russia and official figures Wednesday showed a decrease in active cases for the second day in a row.

With about 380,000 total infections, Russia has the third-highest number of cases after the US and Brazil.

AFP