Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is leaving for Durban, South Africa today, to attend the 5th BRICS Summit. The summit will begin tomorrow. Dr. Singh, who is visiting Durban at the invitation of South African President Jacob Zuma, will be joined by BRICS leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. Prime Minister will also hand over the BRICS Chairmanship to South Africa at the summit. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and a high level business delegation is accompanying the Prime Minister.

Dr. Singh met President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday and briefed him on his visit to South Africa.

Meanwhile, speaking to AIR, Indian High Commissioner to South Africa, Virender Gupta said, India has historic relations with South Africa and has an important role to play in the development of that country. Mr. Gupta said, India is deeply interested in diversifying its activities in South Africa and has initiated a number of programmes for its development. Mr. Gupta described the setting up of BRICS development bank as a good idea.