Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending the 12th BRICS summit hosted by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. The five-member conference will be held virtually, in which the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping will also be present. This will be the second time that Xi and PM Modi will come face to face, following the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which was held on November 10, after the Galwan attack in June.

"At the invitation of President Putin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending the 12th BRICS Summit hosted by Russia, under the theme 'Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth' on November 17," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

The MEA added that the leaders would be discussing intra-BRICS cooperation and key issues in the global context, including the reform of the multilateral system, measures to mitigate the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cooperation in counter terrorism, trade, health, energy and people to people exchanges.

According to reports, Prime Minister Modi is likely to address economic issues and the need to bolster cooperation in the service sector. It is also expected that the Prime Minister will raise the issue of terrorism, terror financing, drug trafficking and the impact of organized crime on business environment, following the recent ceasefire violation across LoC in Keran-Uri sector by Pakistan, reported TOI. 

BRICS is the group composed by the five major emerging countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The main purpose of the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020, as it is for a multifaceted cooperation between the BRICS countries, is to contribute to raising living standards and quality of life our peoples.

This year the five countries have continued close strategic partnership on all the three major pillars: peace and security, economy and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.