Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will chair the 13th BRICS Summit Thursday. Brazil President Jair
Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and
South African President Cyril Ramphosa will partake in the summit. The 13th BRICS
Summit will be held in virtual format, the Ministry of External Affairs has
said.

This is the second
time Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a BRICS Summit. Prime Minister
Modi had chaired the BRICS Summit in 2016, which was held in Goa.  

The theme for
Thursday’s BRICS Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity,
consolidation and consensus. As with most multilateral meetings right now, Afghanistan
is likely to be top of the agenda. The meeting is critical in the sense that
China’s and Russia’s stated position on recognising Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
may not be in line with India’s thoughts on the same.

The world leaders
are expected to deliberate on global and regional issues with terrorism in
focus, reports news agency ANI. The leaders are likely to underscore the priority
of fighting terrorism and discuss ways to ensure that Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
does not turn into a shelter for terrorist groups.  

The Indian chair-ship
of BRICS coincides with the multilateral agency’s 15th anniversary. The summit
will also be attended by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and New
Development Bank President Marcos Troyjo.

They, along with
pro tempore chairs of various BRICS councils, will share reports on the
outcomes pursued this year. India, on its part, has outlined four major areas:
reforming the multilateral system, counter-terrorism, using digital and
technological tools for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and
enhancing people-to-people exchanges.

The COVID-19
pandemic and its impact on world economies is also likely to feature at the
Summit along with other current global and regional issues, the Ministry of
External Affairs has said. The last BRICS
Summit was hosted by Russia.