BRICS Summit 2017 highlights: JeM, LeT included in joint declaration due to violent activities, says China

Ahead of the BRICS Summit 2017, Xi Jinping set the tone for the meeting by pushing for trade liberalisation at the BRICS Business Forum on Sunday.

All eyes are on Xiamen in China as it hosts leaders from across the world for the ninth BRICS leaders from 3-5 September. The forum, which aims to strength partnership among the member nations, is also eyeing to expand its influence on the global front.BRICS, which is an acronym for the charter members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is a group of emergining economies formed by China to challenge the dominance of the Western economies.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian president Michel Temer, South African president Jacob Zuma and Russian president Vladimir Putin will all attend the summit, PTI reported.Even before the beginning of the three-day ninth BRICS summit in China on Monday, Xi Jinping set the tone for the meeting by pushing for trade liberalisation at the forum's business meeting on Sunday.“We should push for an open world economy, promote trade liberalisation and facilitation, jointly create a new global value chain, and realise a global economic rebalancing,” Xi told BRICS business leaders and senior officials.[caption id="attachment_4004511" align="alignleft" width="380"] Delegates arrive prior to the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum in Xiamen, China. Reuters[/caption]Xi's comments only reiterate China's latest efforts to counter US president's 'America First' policy. For the same, China has invited five non-member nations — Egypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan and Thailand — to further enhance its sphere of influence, The Live Mint reported.At the Xiamen summit, Mexico’s president Enrique Pena Nieto is set to be in China to discuss trade and investment, as Trump has renewed threats to scrap the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that he has labelled a killer of US jobs.This year's summit is crucial as China is expected to appeal to other nations for the formation of a bigger bloc 'BRICS Plus'. Earlier, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi was quoted as saying," China would explore modalities for BRICS-plus, to hold outreach dialogues with other major developing countries. We will widen the circle of friends and turn BRICS into the most-influential platform for south-south cooperation in the world”.Meanwhile, India is expected to raise its concerns over terrorism strongly and discuss Pakistan's counter-terror record. However, China, an ally of Pakistan, previously told the media that this was not an "appropriate topic" to be discussed in the forum.India also did not rule out a possible meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping on the margins of the Summit on Monday with external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar saying it is a common practice to arrange bilateral meetings on the sidelines of such multi-laterals.At the last BRICS Summit, hosted by India, Modi had described Pakistan as a "mothership" of terrorism worldwide.The prime minister had sought decisive global action such as systematically cutting off funding, weapons supply, training and political support to terror outfits and asserted that selective approach to deal with the menace will be not only futile but also counter-productive.With inputs from agencies