BRICS Summit 2023: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the opening plenary session of the 15th BRICS Summit on Wednesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his congratulations and best wishes to India ahead of the historic achievement of Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon.
"We would like to congratulate India, particularly as you speak for cooperation in space. In a few hours, India's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 will be landing on the Moon. We congratulate you. This, for us as the BRICS family, is a momentous occasion and we rejoice with you. We join you in the joy of this great achievement," Ramaphosa said.
The scheduled timing for the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday), is around 18:04 IST, with the powered descent of Vikram lander expected at 1745 IST.
If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds in making a touchdown on moon and in landing a robotic lunar rover in Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) second attempt in four years, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Chandrayaan 3 consists of a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan similar to those of the Chandrayaan-2. Its propulsion module acts like an orbiter. The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration until the spacecraft attained a 153 × 163 km lunar orbit.
During his reply, Ramaphosa also thanked PM Modi for speaking on Mahatma Gandhi's contribution in South Africa. "He was one who was strong on resistance. He taught us passive resistance, which he perfected and we escalated to various acts of boycotts against the apartheid system and through that, we were able to encourage citizen activism. Mahatma Gandhi played a very important role in the history of South Africa," he added.
The South African President also thanked the Indian Prime Minister on his various suggestions to BRICS countries, including a BRICS space exploration consortium, protection of big cats and a repository for traditional medicine.
In his address at the opening plenary session of the much-awaited 15th BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed full support for the expansion of BRICS membership based on consensus and said that the group will create further opportunities and shape the future of the world.
"India fully supports the expansion of BRICS membership and we welcome moving forward on this based on consensus. In 2016, during India's presidency, we had defined BRICS as a group building responsive, inclusive and collective solutions. Seven years later, we can say that BRICS will be breakiung barriers, revitalising economics, inspiring innovations, creating opportunities and shaping the future," said the Prime Minister in his remarks.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi held a bilateral meeting with Ramphosa. The meeting was focused on a wide range of issues aimed at deepening India-South Africa relations, agriculture, defence and health investments. During the closed-door meeting, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar was also there from the Indian side.
Notably, India and South Africa are celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations. Taking to social media, MEA spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said that the leaders also took stock of bilateral cooperation including in areas of defence, agriculture, trade and investment, health, conservation and people-to-people ties.
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