PM to leave for Brazil on Tuesday to attend BRICS summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Brazil on November 13 and 14 to attend the 11th BRICS summit, the theme of which is "economic growth for an innovative future".

This will be the sixth time Modi will be participating in the BRICS summit, his first being at Fortaleza, also in Brazil in 2014, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said.

Sources said he would leave for Brasilia, Brazil on Tuesday afternoon.

A large business delegation from India is also expected to be present during the visit, especially to attend the BRICS Business Forum where the business community of all the five countries are represented.

The prime minister is scheduled to hold separate bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. He would also attend the BRICS business forum closing ceremony and the 'closed' and plenary sessions of the XI BRICS Summit.

In the closed session, the discussions are expected to be focused on challenges and opportunities for the exercise of national sovereignty in the contemporary world.

This will be followed by the BRICS Plenary Session, where the leaders will discuss the intra-BRICS cooperation for the economic development of BRICS societies.

The prime minister will also participate in the meeting of the BRICS leaders with the BRICS Business Council, where chairman of the Brazilian BRICS Business Council and the president of the new Development Bank are expected to submit reports.

A BRICS memorandum of understanding between trade and investment promotion agencies will be signed. The participating leaders would also be issued on the conclusion of the summit.

BRICS is the acronym coined for an association of five major emerging national economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The grouping brings together five major emerging economies comprising 42 per cent of the world's population, having 23 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product.