The Indian prime minister last visited the country in July, when his trip caused “concern” in the West
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 16th BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan next week, the Foreign Ministry in New Delhi announced on Friday.
During his visit, the prime minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS member countries and other invited leaders, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
As the current chair of BRICS, Russia is hosting the bloc’s annual summit in the city of Kazan from October 22 to 24.
The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security’. It will set an important platform for leaders to discuss key global issues, the statement said.
“The summit will offer a valuable opportunity to assess the progress of initiatives launched by BRICS and to identify potential areas for future collaboration,” the ministry said.
The visit will be Modi’s second to Russia this year. Notably, he had turned down an invitation from Pakistan to attend this month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Islamabad, sending a delegation led by Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.
Modi last visited Russia in July, weeks after being reelected for a third term. The visit, which was his first trip to the country since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, came under intense scrutiny from countries in the West, which expressed “concern” about India’s relationship with Russia. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky also condemned Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling it a “huge disappointment.”
India has refused to join sanctions against Russia, and during Modi’s visit the two countries signed several key agreements and pledged to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030.
In August, Modi traveled to Ukraine at Zelensky’s behest, drawing praise from the US. During both his visits to Ukraine and Russia, Modi advocated peace through dialogue and diplomacy, and insisted that “solutions cannot come from battlefield.”
New Delhi has also stressed that any peace negotiations must include both sides of the conflict.
At the start of this year, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE officially became new BRICS members, joining Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. More than 30 nations, including NATO member Türkiye, have applied to join the economic bloc.
The bloc’s share of global GDP already exceeds that of the Group of Seven (G7) leading Western economies, and it continues to expand, Putin said at a plenary session of the BRICS Business Forum in Moscow on Friday.
