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Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to India on Saturday to kick off a two-day BRICS summit aimed at protecting developing economies from the global impact of wars in Ukraine and West Asia.
The other leaders attending the summit in New Delhi are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, New Development Bank (NDB) President Dilma Rousseff and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Chief Zou Jiayi are also attending the BRICS summit.
The theme of India's BRICS presidency is "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability".
The summit at New Delhi's Bharat Mandapam assumed greater significance as it is taking place against the backdrop of a global economy facing the adverse impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, the West Asia crisis, especially the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration's trade and tariff policies.
