The South African city of Johannesburg is all decked up to welcome delegations from over 45 countries for the 15th BRICS Summit which will be a 3-day event to be held from August 22-24. PM Modi is expected to depart for the summit on August 22, Tuesday. During his visit, the Prime Minister is also anticipated to have major bilateral talks with some of the leaders present there. This will be the first in-person BRICS summit since the start of the pandemic in 2019. The theme for the summit this year is “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for mutually accelerated growth, sustainable development, and inclusive Multilateralism”. Therefore, most of the talks in this meeting will revolve around this agenda. Indias BRICS Sherpa Dammu told ANI, “As far as the agenda is concerned, there are many issues that are being discussed and also reported mostly the next expansion item on the agenda. And second, is the use of national currency for trading and economic activity amongst the BRICS countries.” Ministry of External Affairs comment on Modis visitThis summit will be the first BRICS summit since the start of Pandemic in 2019 and hence there is much anticipation for the event.Foreign Secretary of India Vinay Kwarta has mentioned that the PM is looking forward to having bilateral talks with the various leaders present there and negotiations are taking place to schedule these meetings. Kwarta further mentioned that a business delegation from India is also traveling to South Africa to attend the Business Tracks meetings as well as the meetings of the BRICS Business Council, BRICS Women Business Alliance, and the BRICS Business Forum. With this visit to South Africa, Modi will mark the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries. He is also expected to participate in a special event “BRICS – Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue” being organized after the BRICS Summit which will have the presence of other leaders of the world as announced by the Ministry of External Affairs. Talks with China at BRICS Summit As a member of BRICS Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to be present for the summit and speculation is there over talks between India and China at the summit. Chinese ambassador in South Africa Chen Xiodong told reporters that considering the two nations are neighbours there are many common interests as well as common problems between India and China. Hence, he said, “I am confident that as two nations, two countries, we will have direct talks, direct meetings.”This meeting could be the first scheduled meeting between the two leaders since the event of border standoff that started in May 2020. Putins presence at the Summit is in question Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to the 15th BRICS summit is not yet confirmed. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for the Kremlin leader over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Since South Africa is also a member of the ICC its unlikely to see Putin at the summit. He is likely to appear on a video link and the Russian delegation will be led by his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
