Modi will not go to South Africa for BRICS summit: can participate virtually, Russian President Putin will also not attend

Modi will not go to South Africa for BRICS summit: can participate virtually, Russian President Putin will also not attend

There is suspense over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation in the BRICS summit. The summit is scheduled to be held in the South African city of Johannesburg from 22 to 24 August. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already refused to participate in the summit.

According to the news agency ‘Reuters’- Modi can attend this meeting virtually. Apart from India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa are the member countries of BRICS. The word BRICS is derived from the first letter of the name of the member countries.

Foreign Ministry kept silence

• When the news agency questioned about Modi going to South Africa and participating in the BRICS summit, there was no response from there. According to the report – China and Russia want to include some more countries in BRICS, while India has some conditions on this matter.
• Along with Pakistan, 19 countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran have offered to become members of BRICS. BRICS countries have also talked about adding more members to strengthen the organization. However, Pakistan will have a very difficult time fitting in.
• Economy is the biggest reason. BRICS directly competes with G7, the world’s most prosperous economic organization. China is the largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity per GDP, with India third, Russia sixth and Brazil eighth. All BRICS countries have a share of 31.5% in the world’s GDP. In such a situation, the organization will be financially weak by including Pakistan in it.
• Last month, India hosted a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It was organized virtually at the last moment. This is not yet evident as to why. No statement was issued in this regard by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

India moving away from BRICS

• Quoting a top Indian official in the report, it has been said that the Modi government no longer wants to be very active regarding BRICS and SCO. The reason for this is that both these platforms are dominated by China and India’s relations with China are not good for almost three years. The situation that was created after the confrontation between the soldiers of India and China in Ladakh in 2020, has not been completely rectified till now.
• One reason is being told that India and America have come very close in recent times and the dislike of Western Powers for China is not a hidden thing. Modi had returned from the US trip just before the SCO summit last month. There the Biden administration gave him a red carpet welcome. However, Russia gave a very balanced reaction to this. The Putin government had said that the relationship between India and America is in its place. Russia has no problem with this.
• G20 summit is going to be held in India next month. Heads of States of all the member countries will participate in this.

Why won’t putin come

• Host South Africa was in a dilemma over Putin’s participation in the BRICS summit. The reason for this is that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant against the Russian President for the attack on Ukraine and war crimes and if he comes to Johannesburg, he is at risk of arrest. Therefore, there was an agreement between the South African and the Russian government and after that information was given about Putin’s absence.
• Regarding Putin’s non-participation, South Africa said- We had talked about this with the Russian government. Both countries have agreed that Putin will not attend this BRICS summit. According to the report of the news agency ‘Reuters’ – A case has been registered against Putin in the International Criminal Court regarding war crimes and if he had come to Johannesburg, the South African government, being a member country, would have had to arrest Putin. Therefore, both the countries decided that Putin should not participate in this summit.
• The ICC had issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March this year. He is accused of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia during the invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, Russia claims that it is not a member of the ICC, then the warrant against Putin would also be considered illegal.

What is BRICS

• Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa make up the BRICS group of nations.. It was made in 2009.
• The purpose of forming this group is to challenge the status of Western Countries with its economic and political dominance.
• BRICS has created its own bank in comparison to International Monetary Fund and World Bank present in Washington.
• The idea of BRICS was first mooted in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs.
• Earlier, South Africa did not join this group, it was then called BRIC. Later S was added and it became brix.
• The share of these five countries in the total GDP of the world is close to 31.5%.