Ahead of his likely visit to South Africa for the BRICS Summit in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke with South Africa's President, Cyril Ramaphosa, and reviewed bilateral, regional and global issues. Ramaphosa briefed Modi on the African Leaders’ Peace Initiative, and the two leaders also discussed cooperation in BRICS, besides reviewing several bilateral, regional and global issues, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Saturday. In the wake of the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Modi reiterated India’s consistent call for dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward, the PMO stated, after the two leaders held the telephonic conversation. It said Ramaphosa also conveyed his full support to India’s G20 Presidency. According to the statement, the two leaders reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation, which is anchored in historic and strong people-to-people ties. Modi, the PMO stated, also thanked Ramaphosa for the relocation of 12 cheetahs to India earlier this year. They exchanged views on several regional and global issues of mutual interest, including cooperation in BRICS in the context of South Africa’s chairmanship this year. The BRICS Summit will be held in August in Durban. With Russia as a prominent member of the BRICS grouping, India noted that it supports all initiatives aimed at ensuring durable peace and stability in Ukraine, and the PM reiterated the country's consistent call for dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward. During their telephonic conversation, Ramaphosa is learnt to have conveyed his full support to India’s initiatives as part of New Delhi's ongoing G20 Presidency. Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was in Cape Town to attend a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of BRICS countries, also seen as the closest that the ‘Global South’ has come to organising itself as a collective to challenge a western global narrative. The Foreign Ministers’ meeting finalised the agenda for the 15th BRICS summit. Two items on the agenda include a plan to expand the membership of BRICS, and a common currency.
