Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signalled his keen interest in meeting all leaders of BRICS during the two day BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
The Prime Minister is visiting Kazan for the 16th BRICS Summit at the invitation of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
In a pre departure statement issued today, the Prime Minister said, “Building upon the Annual Summit held in July 2024 in Moscow, my visit to Kazan will further reinforce the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia.”
The Prime Minister said that he is looking forward to meeting other leaders from BRICS as well.
Prime Minister Modi is set to hold bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the summit’s sidelines.
According to sources, PM Modi is also likely to meet other global leaders in Russia, including China’s President Xi Jinping.
The Prime Minister’s statement came alongside a post on X (formerly Twitter) by MEA official spokeperson Randhir Jaiswal.
The MEA Official Spokesperson posted, “Towards a stronger BRICS! PM @narendramodi departs for Kazan, Russia on a 2-day visit to attend the 16th #BRICS2024 Summit.”
Before flying out to Russia, the Prime Minister said that India values the close cooperation within BRICS.
Modi said that BRICS has emerged as an important platform for dialogue and discussion on several issues issues concerning the global developmental agenda such as reformed multilateralism, climate change, economic cooperation, building resilient supply chains, promoting cultural and people to people connect.
He further said that the addition of new members last year to BRICS has added to its inclusivity and agenda for the global good.
This time, the BRICS summit will have two times the number of participants following the addition of five new member nations.
The strength of the BRICS bloc of top emerging economies has now doubled to ten with the induction of two new African countries – Egypt and Ethiopia besides Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The addition of large-sized countries to BRICS also means that the forum will represent a huge percentage of the world’s population.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that the summit based on the theme ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security,’ will provide an important platform for leaders to discuss key global issues.
News reports quoted India’s Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar as saying that India is a founding member of BRICS and is committed to economic cooperation within the framework of BRICS.
According to foreign policy experts, as many as 34 countries want to join the BRICS bloc as they feel that BRICS is truly representative of the Global South.
BRICS represents 41% of the world population, having 24% of the world GDP and over 16% share in the world trade.
Leaders of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries met for the first time in Russia, on the margins of G8 Outreach Summit in July 2006.
In September 2006, the group was formalised as BRIC during the first BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, on the sidelines of the General Debate of the UN Assembly in New York.
The first BRIC summit was held in Russia in 2009.
BRIC group was renamed BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) after South Africa was accepted as a full member in September 2010.
