Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the 13th BRICS Summit in a virtual format. Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping are attending the meeting.

During the summit, PM 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.”

The Prime Minister also said that the first “BRICS Digital Health Conference” was recently organized.

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“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,” PM Modi said.

Meanwhile, it can be seen that this is the second time PM Modi is chairing the BRICS Summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.

The present situation following the Taliban takeover of Kabul and terror threats emanating from the region will also be discussed during the virtual meet.

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In addition to these areas, the leaders will also exchange views on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues.

The theme for the Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’.

The present BRICS summit has come in the wake of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.