Ushering in the era and acknowledging the work of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the plenary session today. The 10th BRICS summit is being hosted by the country of South Africa. Addressing the session at Johannesburg in South Africa today, Mr. Modi reaffirmed India’s commitment to multilateralism, international trade and rules-based world order.
This was undertaken by PM Modi right after his visit to Rwanda. The Prime Minister is on a 3-nation tour to Africa and has completed delegation level talks in Uganda as well as Rwanda. In Rwanda, PM Modi has gifted 200 cows for ‘an economic development project of the East African nation’.
“Celebrating a decade towards peace, harmony and shared development and prosperity! PM @narendramodi joins fellow #BRICS leaders at the group photo at Sandton International Convention Centre at the formal beginning of the Summit,” Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted.
The three-day summit began yesterday with the BRICS Business Forum Meet. While delivering the keynote address, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that, ‘this year marks the decade of co-operation between BRICS nations’.
Modi has clearly stated that India will be doing a ‘balancing act’ of cooperation and parity with all the other members. While there will be new deals undertaken and signed for the nation, he will also ensure that the member nations ‘reach a consensus on key issues like trade tariffs and terrorism’.
This summit is being held in the backdrop of the US trade war which is likely to hit all five nations of the group. The focus will thus be on ‘consolidating intra-BRICS trade through reduced tariffs’.Russia and China are also expected to not have the best of relations currently with the US and the rest of Europe, but both Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will look ‘to consolidate their leadership for closer cooperation within the BRICS community’.