PM Modi to attend BRICS Summit in Russia next week

The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Russia's Ufa for the BRICS Summit next week and also pay a visit to five Central Asian countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"The PM will be going to Ufa for BRICS after visiting two Central Asian countries. And on his way back from UFA, he'll be visiting three Central Asian countries," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary (West) Navtej Sarna said at a press briefing here.

"The first country PM visits on July 7 is Uzbekistan. This will be followed by Kazakhstan. And then Prime Minister will be going to Ufa for BRICS. On his way back from BRICS Summit, PM will go to Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in that order," he added.

Prime Minister Modi will also be attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit happening in Ufa.

"India had formally applied for membership in SCO in Sep 2014. SCO Foreign Ministers met in June in Moscow, and they had a positive recommendation regarding India's membership to the Summit," stated the MEA.

The seventh BRICS summit is going to be held from July 8-9.

On July 8, the leaders are going to meet in an informal milieu over dinner. The formal summit programme will begin the next day. There will be an official welcome there, and then there will be the customary meeting that leaders have with the members of the BRICS business council.

The theme of this summit is 'BRICS partnership: A powerful factor for Global Development'. The agenda for this summit covers both political and economic issues but the emphasis is on the economic cooperation.