Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a concert before an informal dinner on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia onn October 22, 2024.
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Reuters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (October 23, 2024) will hold an eagerly watched bilateral meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting, on the second day of the 16th summit of the BRICS grouping, comes on the heels of a major breakthrough on patrolling by their militaries along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. 

Also read | BRICS Summit 2024 Oct. 22 Highlights

PM Modi wrapped up the first day of the summit with bilateral meetings with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. With Mr. Putin, he assured India’s committent to providing “all possible assistance” to end the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

On Thursday, Mr. Putin is set to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will be making his first visit to Russia in more than two years — a visit slammed by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting this week with China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, defying predictions that the war in Ukraine and an international arrest warrant would turn Mr. Putin into a pariah.

They will all be in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday for a meeting of the BRICS bloc of developing economies.

The alliance, which aims to counterbalance the Western-led world order, initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but is expanding rapidly. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia joined in January; Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia formally applied, and a number of others expressed a desire to be members.

Russian officials already see the meeting as a massive success. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said 36 countries confirmed participation, and more than 20 will send heads of state. Mr. Putin will hold around 20 bilateral meetings, Mr. Ushakov said, and the summit could turn into “the largest foreign policy event ever held” on Russian soil.

– AFP