Modi leaves for Brazil tomorrow

New Delhi, July 12: Prime Minister

leaves here tomorrow for

for attending the five-nation summit of BRICS nations on July 14 and 15 which is expected to finalise the setting up of a development bank and seek reforms of the United Nations and international financial organisations.

After a stopover in Berlin tomorrow night, he will leave for Fortaleza, the north-eastern coastal city of Brazil, on Monday for the summit of leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to be held on July 15, providing him his first opportunity at multilateral engagement. An earlier plan to have a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin was shelved because of Germany's entry into the Fifa World Cup final, for which she will be in Brazil.

Modi will be accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Adviser A K Doval, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram. The sixth summit of BRICS, which will follow up on the decisions of the Durban meeting last year, will provide the new Indian prime minister his first opportunity at meeting world leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, and discuss bilateral issues.

A Fortaleza Declaration containing the summit outcome is also on the cards. Negotiations are already on for which Sujata Mehta, Secretary, Economic Relations, External Affairs Ministry, is Modi's sherpa. BRICS accounts for more than a quarter of the world's land mass, 40 per cent of its population and a combined GDP of USD 24 trillion. Officials say that India will be hoping for an endorsement of the need for UN Security Council reforms and also those of the Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

PTI