The fifth summit comprising BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa begins in a short while from now at Durban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Xi jingping, Russian President Vladimir Puttin, and President of Brazil Dilma Rouseff have arrived at Durban for the Summit.
The summit has attracted wide support from African nations with over 12 Heads of African nations gathering at Durban during the summit. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has also arrived at Durban. Morsi had sought joining the BRICS grouping during his visit to New Delhi last month. Egypt had also suggested taking forward the Al Nahda project of developing the Suez Canal to open a gateway for Indian exports to the African continent.
Our correspondent reports the BRICS grouping that seeks to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth has won the hearts of developing economies including African nations. India had also recently revised its trade target with Africa to 100 billion dollars. The Summit is focussed on the long- neglected African continents' interest of infrastructure development.
Our correspondent adds that the Finance Ministers of BRICS countries meeting today are to iron out modalities on a BRICS Development bank announced in Delhi last year to finance projects in developing and least developed countries. In New Delhi last year, the BRICS leaders had inked two enabling agreements-one on accepting local currency for extending credit, and another on Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility to replace the United States dollar as the main unit of trade between BRICS members.
Our correspondent says the latest reports from Durban indicate that though progress is expected, a final outcome on the BRICS Development bank would take another year as members are yet to finalize important issues including capital formation, voting pattern, representation rights and governance issues.
On the sidelines of the BRICS summit , a bilateral meeting between Dr Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to be held tomorrow. This will be the first meeting between the two leaders after Xi formally took over as President of China last week. Ahead of the meeting, India sent clear signals of reciprocating China's desire to improve ties.
Official sources said yesterday that India will not allow bilateral ties to be held hostage by differences on the boundary issue, echoing the views of President Xi last week.
President XI had last week propounded five proposals for improving bilateral ties with India. These included keeping aside differences on various issues while improving mutual ties and accommodation of each other's concerns while dealing with core interests.
