BRICS 2019 – PM Modi to meet Jinping and Putin in Seperate Bilateral in Brazil

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in separate bilateral meetings at Brasilia, Brazil, on Wednesday, where the leaders will meet for the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meet.

The meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will take place about a month after the informal Summit between the two leaders at Mamallapuram near Chennai. It also comes in the wake of the recent war of words between the two countries after the Indian state of J&K was bifurcated by New Delhi into two Union Territories—J&K and Ladakh.

Meanwhile, during the bilateral meeting between PM Modi and President Putin, the bilateral relations, including cooperation in the military technical field, energy and space are expected to be discussed, Russian deputy chief of mission (DCM) Roman Babushkin told reporters in New Delhi.

Mr. Babushkin also said Russia had already invited PM Modi to visit Moscow in May next year for the 75th anniversary of the victor of Russia over Nazi Germany in the second world war that ended in 1945. He said Mr Modi had agreed to attend the celebrations in May next year. The invitation was extended by President Putin, when PM Modi had visited Vladivostok a few months ago. Asked about media reports recently on a cyber attack on the Kudankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu that was built with the support of Russia, Mr. Babushkin said, “The Kudankulam nuclear power plant has triple security systems that ensures physical safety, software safety, we were assured by the Indian authorities that the plant is safe.”

On India inking the deal earlier for S-400 missiles from Russia despite American pressure, Mr Babushkin said, “India needs the best in world air-defence systems.”

On the threat of terrorism, the Russian DCM said if terror organisation ISIS were to spread its tentacles in Afghanistan, Russia would be the main target. He pointed out that earlier as many as 5,000 Russian citizens had become radicalised and joined the ISIS, one of the main reasons why Russia had intervened in Syria to support the Assad regime in the fight against ISIS. Russian DCM also said the Brics forum would continue to take a tough stand against terrorism. On the Taliban, Mr. Babushkin said the American efforts to broker a deal with the Taliban suggested that there could be a possibility that Taliban in future could be part of the government in Afghanistan.

Source: AA

Image Courtesy: Rediff