Prime Minister Narendra Modi left here on Tuesday for South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS Summit that will bring him face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping though a bilateral meeting between the two leaders is still not confirmed.

”BRICS has been pursuing a strong cooperation agenda across various sectors. We value that BRICS has become a platform for discussing and deliberating on issues of concern for the entire Global South, including development imperatives and reform of the multilateral system,” he said in a departure statement.

This will be the first in-person BRICS summit after 2019. Over the last three years, meetings were held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PM said the summit would provide a useful opportunity for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to identify future areas of cooperation and review institutional development.

He said that during his stay in Johannesburg, he would also participate in BRICS–Africa Outreach and BRICS + Dialogue events to be held as part of the BRICS Summit activities. He said he looked forward to interacting with a number of guest countries that have been invited to participate in this event.

Modi confirmed that he would hold bilateral meetings with some of the leaders present in Johannesburg. But there is no confirmation so far on whether Modi will hold bilateral talks with President Xi on the margins of the summit though the two leaders will share the stage at regular intervals during the summit. Officials were tightlipped on the possibility of a meeting between them, saying the PM’s schedule in terms of bilateral meetings was still being developed.

Both India and China have, however, held at least two senior military-level meetings to resolve the border stand-off in eastern Ladakh, thus creating an environment for a meeting between the two leaders. If the two leaders do hold bilateral talks in Johannesburg, it will be their first bilateral meeting since the military stand-off began in April-May 2021.

From South Africa, the PM will travel to Greece on 25 August at the invitation of his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. ”This will be my first visit to this ancient land. I have the honour to be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Greece after 40 years,” Modi said.

He said contacts between the two civilisations stretch back over two millennia. ”In modern times, our ties have been strengthened by shared values of democracy, rule of law, and pluralism. Cooperation in diverse sectors such as trade and investment, defence, and cultural and people-to-people contacts have been bringing our two countries closer,” he added.

Modi said he looked forward to his visit to Greece opening a new chapter in the multifaceted relationship.