Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the 13th BRICS Summit in virtual format on Thursday which will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.

This is the second time PM Modi will be chairing the BRICS Summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.

Replying to a question last week, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin had said in Beijing on Friday that the current situation in Afghanistan will also be discussed during the summit as BRICS has a tradition of maintaining communication and coordination and jointly stating positions on regional and international issues of common concern.  

"As a positive, stabilizing and constructive force in international affairs, the BRICS countries will carry forward the tradition by leveraging various venues. In fact, BRICS countries had communication and coordination on the Afghan issue recently through such mechanisms as the BRICS Meeting of National Security Advisors," Wang Wenbin stated.

As part of India’s ongoing chairmanship of BRICS in 2021, the meeting will also be by attended India's National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, President of the New Development Bank Marcos Troyjo, the pro tempore Chair of the BRICS Business Council Onkar Kanwar and pro tempore Chair of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance Sangita Reddy. They will be presenting reports on the outcomes pursued this year under their respective tracks to the leaders during the summit.

With the theme for the summit being 'BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus', India had outlined four priority areas for its chairship – Reform of the multilateral system; Counter terrorism; Using digital and technological tools for achieving SDGs and enhancing people to people exchanges. In addition to these areas, the leaders will also exchange views on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues.