On Thursday Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the BRICS Summit digitally. The meeting is attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) comprises the five largest developing countries in the world, representing 41 percent of the global population, 24 percent of global GDP, and 16 percent of global trade.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, this is the second time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing the meeting, earlier in 2016, he had conducted the conference in Goa. The theme of the summit is: ‘BRICS@15: Inter-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “BRICS has made many achievements in the last one and a half decades. Today we are an influential voice for the emerging economies of the world. This platform has also been useful for focusing on the priorities of developing countries. We have to ensure that BRICS is more productive in the next 15 years.”
PM added further, “It was also the first time that BRICS took a shared position on ‘Strengthening and Improving Multilateral Systems’. We have also adopted the BRICS ‘Counter-Terrorism Action Plan.’ Recently the first ‘BRICS Digital Health Conference’ was organized. This is an innovative step to increase health access with the help of technology. Our Water Resources Minister will meet for the first time in BRICS format in November.”
