The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) has become a platform for discussing the challenges faced by the Global South, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on August 22 before leaving on a four-day visit for South Africa and Greece. Narendra Modi will be in Johannesburg between August 22 and 24 for the summit, where he is scheduled to participate in the BRICS-Africa Outreach and the BRICS Plus Dialogue, and hold several bilateral meetings.
PM Modi’s statement on BRICS
“BRICS has been pursuing a strong cooperation agenda across various sectors. We value that it has become a platform for discussing and deliberating on issues of concern for the entire Global South, including development imperatives and reform of the multilateral system,” he said in a statement issued before his departure.
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The Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive at Waterkloof Air Force Base at around 1.45 p.m., South African Standard Time (3.5 hours behind IST). He will then attend the Business Forum Leaders’ Dialogue and the BRICS Leaders’ Retreat on Tuesday.
The 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg is the first in-person meeting of the group since 2019, when it was disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic. The Johannesburg meeting has additional significance as it will discuss the expansion of the grouping by including countries such as Iran, Bangladesh and other developing economies. PM Modi said, “I look forward to interacting with a number of guest countries that have been invited to participate in this event.” From Johannesburg, he will fly to Athens at the invitation of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Mr. Modi’s August 25 visit to Greece will be the first Prime Minister–level visit from India to Athens in four decades.
“Contacts between our two civilisations stretch back over two millennia. In modern times, our ties have been strengthened by shared values of democracy, rule of law and pluralism. Cooperation in diverse sectors such as trade and investment, defense and cultural and people-to-people contacts have been bringing our two countries together,” said Prime Minister Modi.
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