PM Modi not to go to China, BRICS summit planned virtually

New Delhi, April 19

The South Block is likely to be spared the dilemma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having to travel to Beijing to attend the BRICS summit while the border dispute with China remains unresolved. The five-nation BRICS grouping has decided to hold the next summit online, which was confirmed at a recent meeting of BRICS Sherpas, said sources here.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had met his counterpart S Jaishankar here on March 25 to explore the possibility of an in-person summit around the end of June. However, India did not accept the proposal to keep aside the border dispute and develop relations in other spheres.

Wang’s lack of audience with PM Modi also sent the signal that New Delhi expected a repeat of Doklam in 2017. It was after both sides withdrew their forces from an eye-ball to eye-ball confrontation on the Doklam Plateau on August 28 that PM Modi’s confirmation for the BRICS summit from September 3 in Xiamen was announced.

Before the BRICS summit, PM Modi will travel to Tokyo to attend an in-person Quad Summit on May 24. The fact that the Quad summit is being held in-person and the BRICS summit will bea virtual one highlights the intense western pressure on countries like India, China, Brazil and South Africa to minimise their interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the sources.

Interestingly, the western bloc will also hold the G-7 summit a few days before the BRICS summit. Germany, which will host the summit from June 26 to 28, is yet to send out an invite to India to attend the meeting as an observer. India has been invited to about a quarter of G-7 summits along with other countries as an observer and there was talk in western media about the invitation being withheld because New Delhi has not equivocally condemned Russia for the invasion. (EOM)