Hon. PM Narendra Modi announces that he will attend the BRICS Summit held in South Africa.

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he will attend the BRICS Summit in South Africa, in a telephone conversation with Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s President. President Ramaphosa invited PM for the BRICS Summit being hosted by South Africa on August 22-24, 2023 and briefed him on the preparations for the same. PM accepted the invitation and conveyed that he looked forward to his visit to Johannesburg to participate in the Summit,” a press release by the Ministry of External Affairs reads. Ramaphosa conveyed his full support to India’s initiatives as part of its ongoing G-20 Presidency and said that he looked forward to visiting India to attend the G-20 Summit, the release added. The speculation about the Prime Minister’s attendance was caused by President Vladimir Putin cancelling his participation in the BRICS Summit. In March this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin after reports of an effort to deport Ukrainian children to Russia surfaced. As South Africa is a signature to the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, the country may have been compelled to arrest Putin. This led to a raging debate in South Africa about whether the country should discharge its obligations. Eventually, Putin announced that he would not attend the summit in-person but would attend virtually.