Jaishankar cancels trip to Brazil to attend BRICS meet

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has cancelled his previously announced trip to Brazil to attend a meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) foreign ministers.nnSpokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Raveesh Kumar said Thursday that India is being represented at the BRICS meeting by Gen. (retd) V K Singh, who is the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways.nnSingh was a Minister of State in the MEA in the previous NDA government and used to look after affairs relating to Latin America.nn”What I understand is that the External Affairs Minister has some parliamentary commitments and, therefore, it was decided that Singh will represent India at BRICS foreign ministers meeting,” said Kumar.nnOn July 18, the MEA had announced that Jaishankar will attend the BRICS meeting on July 25-26.nnLast month, leaders of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) had a “successful” informal summit on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.nnSource: Press Trust of India