Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will meet his Chinese and Russian counterparts ahead of the Brics summit on Tuesday.
He will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Union Buildings in Pretoria in the morning, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Durban later in the day.
The fifth Brics summit starts on Tuesday evening with an opening ceremony and a banquet hosted by Zuma.
Strategic partnerships
Brics is a group of developing nations consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
This is the first Brics summit on African soil.
On Monday, Zuma said the heads of state of the Brics countries would attend the summit.
Several agreements would be signed cementing economic ties between China and South Africa.
Zuma said a declaration on strategic partnerships between Russia and South Africa would be signed in fields such as defence, education, energy, science, technology, and transport.
South Africa will chair the group for 12 months after Durban and then hand over to Brazil.
A total of 125 delegates from China, 125 from Russia, 74 from India, 60 from Brazil, and 242 from South Africa will be part of the discussions at the summit.
During the summit, Brics finance ministers will present the results of a feasibility study on a Brics development bank.
