PM Modi to participate in the 14th BRICS Summit today

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the summit of five nation grouping- BRICS in virtual format on June 23-24. This includes a High Level Dialogue on Global Development with guest countries on June 24.

The two-day summit will see participation from all the heads of member states including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping (Chair of BRICS for 2022). The theme for BRICS 2022 is “Foster High-Quality BRICS Partnership Usher in a New Era for Global Development”.

Elaborating on the details of the meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Discussions during the 14th BRICS Summit are expected to cover intra-BRICS cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism, trade, health, traditional medicine, environment, S&T and innovation, agriculture, technical and vocational education and training, and MSMEs.”

Also, issues like reform of the multilateral system, combating COVID-19 pandemic and global economic recovery are highly to be discussed at the summit.

Prior to the Summit, i.e., earlier on Wednesday, PM Modi also addressed the Opening Ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum. There, he talked about four important aspects of the changes in ‘New India’—technology-led growth, ease of doing business, infrastructure expansion & improvement and digital transformation.

He further said the government is expecting the Indian economy to grow by 7.5 per cent this year. Transformative changes are taking place in every sector in the emerging ‘New India’, PM Modi added.

During his address, PM Modi also highlighted the role of BRICS. PM Modi said, “Today when the whole world is focusing on post-COVID recovery, then the role of BRICS countries will continue to remain very important again.”

About BRICS

BRICS is a group of five major emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It is pertinent to note that the countries together represent 41% of the world’s population, around 25% of global GDP and around 20% of world trade.

The five nation powerful grouping has been discussing and deliberating on issues of common concern for all developing countries. “BRICS countries have regularly called for reform of the multilateral system in order to make it more representative and inclusive.”