Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Brazil from his stopover at Berlin in Germany on Monday morning, to attend the two-day BRICS Summit that begins tomorrow.
Modi left for Brazil on the invitation of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who had also invited him to attend the FIFA World Cup final that was held on Sunday. While, Modi was unable to attend the event, he will join the leaders of the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations for the Sixth BRICS Summit being held in Fortaleza and Brasilia on 15-16 July.
Here are a few important points about Modi's Brazil visit for the BRICS Summit -
- Modi is expected to have bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival in the city of Fortaleza in Brazil on Monday, in what will be his first meeting with the leaders after he took over as Prime Minister in May. He is expected to bring up border issues and bilateral trade with the Chinese leader, while he is likely to discuss nuclear technology with Russia.
- Modi's biggest priority at the Summit will be the Fortaleza Declaration on Tuesday that will entail the announcement of the BRICS "New Development Bank" and the contingency reserve fund. The BRICS Development Bank was first initiated by India in 2012 and is proposed to be set up with an initial corpus fund of USD 50 billion, which will later be raised to USD 100 billion. It is seen to be the BRICS nations' answer to the Western institutions such as the World Bank.
- The Prime Minister is being accompanied by a high-level delegation including Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Adviser A K Doval, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram.
- The theme of the Summit is - "Inclusive Growth; Sustainable Development"
- Modi will also meet with leaders of other South American countries who have been invited by the Brazilian President to attend the Summit.
- The Summit will be held in two cities of Fortaleza and Brasilia in the course of two days.
- Modi has called the Sixth Brics Summit as the "second cycle" of BRICS Summit, stating that it comes at a time of "political turmoil, conflict and humanitarian crisis in several parts of the world, and persisting weakness and risks in the global economy".
