BRICS Summit 2024: PM Modi meets with Putin

PM Narendra Modi arrived Kazan on Tuesday to attend 16th BRICS Summit 2024. He was warmly welcomed by Russian delegation. He held bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During this meeting he emphasized calls for peace in Ukraine. PM will also hold bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during this event. 

The 2024 BRICS Summit, taking place in Kazan, Russia from October 22-24, is notable for being the first gathering after the group's expansion to include Egypt, the UAE, Iran, and Ethiopia. Key priorities for the summit include integrating these new members and enhancing partnerships across politics, security, economy, finance, and cultural ties.

Major topics on the agenda include reforming global economic and political governance, promoting trade in local currencies to reduce dependence on the US dollar, and discussing the creation of a BRICS payment system to facilitate cross-border transactions. The summit will also address climate change, energy cooperation, supply chain security, and scientific collaboration. 

BRICS was established in 2009. Initialy it has 5 members Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa; currently it has 9 members after joining Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and UAE. 

Combined, the BRICS members encompass about 30% of the world's land surface area, 45% of the global population and 33% of the global GDP. 

Western countries consider BRICS as a geopolitical rival of G7 bloc but recently Vladimir Putin quoted Narendra Modi "BRICS is not anti-western, it is non-western"