New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the BRICS Summit on Thursday in virtual format, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend the meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The theme for the Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’. This is the second time Prime Minister Modi will be chairing the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.

The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the 15th anniversary of BRICS, as reflected in the theme for the summit.

The meeting will also be attended by India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, President of the New Development Bank Marcos Troyjo, the pro tempore chair of the BRICS Business Council, Onkar Kanwar and pro tempore Chair of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, Sangita Reddy.

They will present reports on the outcomes pursued this year under their respective tracks to the leaders during the summit.

India had outlined four priority areas for its Chairship. These are Reform of the Multilateral System, Counter-Terrorism, Using Digital and Technological Tools for achieving SDGs and Enhancing People to People exchanges.

In addition to these areas, the leaders will also exchange views on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues, the ministry said.

Russia hosted the last BRICS meeting.

The 2020 BRICS summit was held virtually amid the covid pandemic under the chairmanship of Russia.

The summit took place in November and it was the first time that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping were on the same platform after the Galwan valley episode.