New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired the annual summit of BRICS leaders.
The theme for the Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’. BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
All the BRICS countries — Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping — will be attending the meeting.
The leaders are expected to discuss the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the terror threats emanating from the region will also be discussed during the virtual meet.
Sources familiar with developments of the BRICS summit had told ANI that the leaders will also deliberate on important global and regional issues including Afghanistan, on which leaders are likely to underscore the priority of fighting terrorism, including preventing attempts by terror organisations to use Afghanistan as a sanctuary to carry out attacks against other countries.
This is the second time Prime Minister Modi is chairing the BRICS Summit. Earlier, he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016. The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the 15th anniversary of BRICS, as reflected in the theme for the summit.
The meeting is also being attended by India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, President of the New Development Bank Marcos Troyjo, the pro tempore chair of the BRICS Business Council, Onkar Kanwar and pro tempore Chair of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, Sangita Reddy.
They will present reports on the outcomes pursued this year under their respective tracks to the leaders during the summit. (Agencies)