Hangzhou: India on Sunday called for intensified joint efforts by other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) members to combat terrorism as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought coordinated actions by the grouping to “isolate supporters and sponsors of terror”, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
In a hard-hitting intervention while leading from the chair, Modi in his address to the BRICS leaders meeting here said “terrorists in South Asia or any where for that matter do not own banks or weapons factories”. “Clearly someone funds and arms them and BRICS must intensify joint efforts not just to fight terror but to coordinate actions to isolate those who are supporters and sponsors of terror,” he said, without naming Pakistan which is a close ally of China.
Describing BRICS as “an influential voice” in international discourse, Modi said it was the grouping’s shared responsibility to shape the global agenda and help developing nations achieve their objectives. He said terrorism remains the “primary source of instability and the biggest threat to our societies” and countries and the supplies chains have a global reach. Use of social media to promote radical ideology is “growing dimension of this threat”, he added.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup during a media briefing said “this (Modi’s address to the BRICS leaders meeting) tells you how strongly Prime Minister intervened on the issue of terror and how be believes that this really is the central challenge facing the moment and unless we have collective approach to this, it will not be possible for us to defeat this.”
Swarup said it was important to have informal discussions with the other BRICS leaders ahead of the grouping’s 8th annual summit in Goa from 15-16 October.
Modi, in his address to the four other leaders of the grouping said: “We, as BRICS, are an influential voice in international discourse. It is, therefore, our shared responsibility to shape the international agenda.
“Our shared responsibility to shape international agenda in manner that helps developing nations achieve their objectives,” he said in this picturesque eastern Chinese city on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
BRICS brings together five major emerging economies, comprising 43% of the world population, having 37% of the world GDP (gross domestic product ) and 17% share in the world trade.
Modi said that as chair of BRICS, “’Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions’ is the theme we have chosen which mirrors central priorities at G20 summit”. “We’ve taken BRICS out of capitals to involve people from all walks of life. It will be an opportunity to deepen our ties and with BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi- Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries.
The four other leaders who participated in the meeting of the five-member bloc included Brazilian President Michel Temer, Chinese President Xi Jinping—with whom Modi held bilateral talks earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Jacob Zuma.
“Our summit next month would not only be an opportunity to deepen ties with ourselves, we will also interact with India’s neighbouring countries of BIMSTEC—Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, who have been invited for the outreach summit. We welcome you all to Goa next month,” Modi said while concluding his brief address.
As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of G8 Outreach Summit in 2006.
The grouping was formalised during the 1st meeting of BRIC foreign ministers on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York in 2006.
The 1st BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009. BRIC was expanded into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC foreign ministers’ meeting in New York in September 2010.
Accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS summit in Sanya, China in April 2011.