UN chief likely to meet PM Modi during BRICS summit

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits India this week for the BRICS summit, according to his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

The spokesperson said at his briefing on Tuesday (local time) that although the visit has not been officially announced, he could say "that he (the UN chief) will be there at the BRICS summit".

"And I think you can expect him to meet with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi," he added.

This will be Guterres' second visit to India this year, and his fifth during his tenure as secretary-general.

He had attended the India-AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February.

For Guterres, who is in his last four months in office, this may be among his last opportunities as secretary-general to meet PM Modi and Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping, formally or informally, because they will be skipping the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly later this month but attending the BRICS summit.

The leaders of the ten-member BRICS are meeting under the dark clouds of two major conflicts, the Iran conflict and the Ukraine War, with far-reaching consequences, even eroding the UN's sustainable development goals and threatening food security in many parts of the world.

Leaders of two Gulf adversaries, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, are expected to be there.

India, as the chair, has set the summit's theme as 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability', ideas that Guterres has promoted in his ten-year run as the UN's head.

Additionally, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran will be at the BRICS summit that starts on September 12.

That may be Guterres' last chance as Secretary-General to meet Putin and Xi, formally or informally, because they will be skipping the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly later this month.

(Except the headline, this article has not been edited by Education Post)