Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves here tomorrow for South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS Summit amidst intense speculation on whether he will have a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the five-nation meet.

“…The host country South Africa has invited a large number of guest countries, besides BRICS members. The PM’s schedule, in terms of bilateral meetings with those leaders who would be present in South Africa, is still being developed…” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a media briefing today when asked about the prospects of a bilateral meeting between the PM and the Chinese leader.

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This will be the first in-person BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit after three consecutive years of virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kwatra said a business delegation from India will also be travelling to South Africa to attend the Business Tracks meetings and also the meetings of the BRICS Business Council, BRICS Women Business Alliance and the BRICS Business Forum.

He said: “The theme of the BRICS Summit this year is ‘BRICS and Africa: Partnership for mutually accelerated growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism’. This would be the first in-person BRICS Summit after three consecutive years of virtual meetings owing to the COVID-19 pandemic…”

For the 15th BRICS Summit, a business delegation from India is also travelling to South Africa to attend the Business Tracks meetings and also the meetings of the BRICS Business Council, BRICS Women Business Alliance and the BRICS Business Forum.

In response to a question on whether India favoured the expansion of BRICS since many countries have shown interest in their inclusion in the grouping, the foreign secretary said New Delhi has a ”positive intent and an open mind” on the issue.

Following his visit to South Africa, Modi will pay an official visit to Greece on 25 August 2023 at the invitation of his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. This will be the first visit by an Indian PM to Greece in 40 years.

India and Greece enjoy civilizational ties, which have strengthened in recent years through cooperation in areas like maritime transport, defence, trade and investments and people-to-people ties. The PM will hold talks with the Greek leader to discuss ways to further deepen the relationship. He will also interact with business leaders from both countries, as well as with the Indian community in Greece.

Kwatra said: “During  PM Modi’s visit to Greece, both sides will look to expand and diversify trade and investment segment of cooperation, deepen and expand defence and security partnership, infrastructure cooperation, shipbuilding industry…The visit would give both sides an opportunity to discuss also the regional and global issues of mutual interest and help broaden and deepen our bilateral engagement.”