Hasina to meet Modi in South Africa

Goutam Lahiri, from New Delhi

In the BRICS summit scheduled to be held in Johannesburg of South Africa, meetings seems to be taken place between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. BRICS is the forum for peace, security, development and cooperation, comprising of growing market economy countries. These countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS summit will commence on August 21 andwill be continued till August 24. The BD government source confirmed about participation of Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hsiana there.

In Bangladesh, the month of August is regarded as the month of mourning and usually the Prime Minister doesn’t visit abroad in this month. However, she’s visiting South Africa as the decision might be taken in this summit regarding Bangladesh’s inclusion in BRICS. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa invited sheikh Hsina to join BRICS during their meeting in Geneva. Later on, Sheikh Hasina also informed about Bangladesh’s keen interest to join in BRICS.

Recently some international media reported that India is against expansion. In the latest weekly briefing in this regard, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs completely refuted the published news and said, "This information is completely wrong that we are opposed to BRICS expansion. I am saying again that the information was wrong. Rather, the leaders of the 14th BRICS summit agreed on BRICS expansion. Now the leaders of all BRICS coordinating countries are discussing this issue. We think everything is progressing positively. Policies are being prepared for the inclusion of new member states. New members will be taken only when the matter is finalized.”

Apart from Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and some other countries have expressed interest to become BRICS members. 70 countries are invited to the conference held in South Africa. Among them is Bangladesh. It has been announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the summit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come there. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit directly. He will join via video conference. He has an arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. So he won't go. Prime Minister Modi and Sheikh Hasina are likely to meet during this meeting. The meeting will take place one more time before the two leaders meet at the G-20 summit in September. India is ready to support Bangladesh to become a BRICS member. According to official sources, membership may not be announced this time. However, the declaration of policy may pave the way for Bangladesh to become a member.

@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on August 19 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque