Prime Minister Modi arrives in South Africa to attend 15th BRICS summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in South Africa on Tuesday on a threeday official visit during which he will attend the 15th BRICS summit and hold bilateral meetings with a number of world leadersPM Modi is visiting the African country from August 22 to 24 at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa South Africa is hosting the first inperson summit of BRICS comprising Brazil Russia India China and South Africa since 2019Earlier in his departure statement in New Delhi Modi said BRICS has been pursuing a strong cooperation agenda across various sectorsWe value that BRICS 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 saidThis summit will provide a useful opportunity for BRICS to identify future areas of cooperation and review institutional development he saidPM Modi posted on X that he will also take part in the BRICSAfrica Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue events The Summit will give the platform to discuss issues of concern for the Global South and other areas of developmentThe BRICS bloc comprising Brazil Russia India China and South Africa brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world representing 41 per cent of the global population 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global tradeOver 20 heads of state from Africa and the Middle East have also been invited to attend A number of them have applied to become members of BRICS which is one of the matters on the agenda for the SummitPM Modi said in the statement that he looked forward to interacting with a number of guest countries that have been invited to participate in this eventI also look forward to holding bilateral meetings with some of the Leaders present in Johannesburg he saidRussian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the BRICS summit virtually due to him facing possible arrest in terms of an International Criminal Court ICC warrant if he lands in South AfricaFrom South Africa the prime minister will travel to Greece on August 25 at the invitation of his Greece counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis It will be his first visit to this ancient land I have the honour to be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Greece after 40 years he saidContacts between our two civilizations stretch back over two millennia and in modern times our ties have been strengthened by shared values of democracy rule of law and pluralism he saidCooperation in diverse sectors such as trade and investment defence and cultural and peopletopeople contacts have been bringing our two countries closer he addedHe looked forward to visiting Greece and opening a new chapter in our multifaceted relationship PM Modi said adding that he will also be interacting with the Indian community thereThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever