Modi reaches China to attend BRICS Summit
XIAMEN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Sunday to attend the 9th BRICS Summit in the Chinese southeastern city Xiamen.
He is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the three-day event.
Their meeting will be keenly watched after the resolution of the Doklam border row, which pitted the armies of the two countries against each other for over two months.
This will be the second bilateral meeting between the two leaders this year. The last one took place during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit.
They met informally at the G20 Summit in Germany in July amid the Doklam crisis.
Besides, Modi is expected to meet Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Michael Temer of Brazil.
Also attending the event will be South African President Jacob Zuma.
The Indian leader will address the BRICS leaders’ dialogue with ‘ BRICS Business Council’ meeting.
He will take part in an event of the ‘Emerging Markets and Developing Countries’ Dialogue’ on Tuesday morning.
After the BRICS Summit, Modi will travel to Myanmar.
The Modi-Xi meeting, which both sides have indicated, comes after a dragging border row ended last week.
On Saturday, Modi, slated to arrive in Xiamen later on Sunday, said he would also meet other BRICS leaders.
Xi and Modi last met bilaterally during June’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. They met informally at G20 in Germany the following month amid the border crisis.
Modi might raise terror links at the event. China has said the summit was not the appropriate place to discuss the issue.
Modi will attend the BRICS restricted session and its plenary session on Monday. The session is expected to focus on the global economic situation, international economic governance, national security and development, and international and regional issues.
The proposed BRICS rating agency will be one of the key agenda issues.
The five-member bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was formed in 2006.