India’s Modi to attend 15th BRICS summit in South Africa
New Delhi, Aug 21 (EFE).- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to depart for South Africa on Tuesday to take part in the 15th BRICS summit, set to be held between August 22-24, with a focus on the expansion of the bloc.
“The Prime Minister will depart tomorrow morning for Johannesburg where he would be participating in the 15th BRICS Summit,” Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a press conference on Monday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa will also participate in the Johannesburg summit.
However, Russian President Vladimir will attend the summit virtually due to an arrest warrant, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, over his alleged involvement in war crimes in Ukraine.
Tuesday’s meeting, to be attended by member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will mark the first in-person BRICS summit after three consecutive years of virtual meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expansion of the BRICS bloc will be a top priority on this year’s agenda, as more than 40 countries, including Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Venezuela, Algeria and Indonesia, have expressed interest in joining the group.
“India has a positive intention and an open mind when it comes to BRICS expansion,” Kwatra said, even though New Delhi had expressed reservations in this regard in the past.
The summit will also discuss the issue of de-dollarization, advocating for the use of national currencies in trade and economic activities among the BRICS members.
India has already launched the initiative to employ the rupee instead of dollars in bilateral trade.
India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed in July to use and promote national currencies in bilateral trade, instead of dollars.
Kwatra underlined that Modi will hold bilateral meetings with various leaders on the sideline of the summit but did not specify whether he would meet with Xi, in the backdrop of tensions between the two neighbors following several border clashes in recent years and long standing-disputes. EFE
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