Sushma Swaraj Urges Joint Action By BRICS Nations

Currently on her five-day trip to South Africa, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers' meeting on Sunday and spoke about joint action by the nations in handling multilateralism, international trade and asserted that the rules-based world order faces "strong head-winds" against money laundering, terrorist-financing and de-radicalisation.

The meeting is critical in laying the foundation for the annual summit of the grouping in Johannesburg next month. "Our deliberations here will contribute towards enriching intra BRICS cooperation further," Swaraj said.

MEA statement noted her talking about India’s role in BRICS, in consolidating intra-BRICS cooperation and in international affairs.

“Our meeting today takes place at a time when multilateralism, international trade, and rules based world order face strong head-winds,” Swaraj said.

“Though, the global growth has exhibited signs of recovery, the challenges to long-term growth continue to persist. Ensuring that the benefits of globalisation are shared widely remains a challenge,” she added.

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“Our leaders have also called for making UN Counter Terrorism framework efficient and effective. We reiterate our commitment to implement our Leaders' mandate on counter terrorism under South Africa's BRICS Chairship”

“Prime Minister Modi had given a call for a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy for joint-action with a focus on money laundering, terrorist-finance, cyber-space and de-radicalization as our priorities,” Swaraj said.

“Our leaders have also called for making UN Counter Terrorism framework efficient and effective. We reiterate our commitment to implement our Leaders' mandate on counter terrorism under South Africa's BRICS Chairship,” she said.

China's Wang Yi, South Africa's Lindiwe Sisulu, Brazil's Marcos Bezerra Abbott Galvao and Russia's Sergey Lavrov were some of the other external affairs ministers attending the event.

Swaraj said that BRICS Cooperation in strategic areas of security, counter-terrorism, UN reforms, peacekeeping, de-radicalisation, cyber security, energy security, global governance, and international and regional hot-spot issues are deliberated in detail during National Security Advisor's meetings.

“It is imperative now that the common ground reached in our NSAs meeting on setting up a BRICS Security Forum is implemented fully,” she added.

EAM Swaraj went ahead and welcomed the decision of South Africa's Summit theme devoted to Development in Africa in an inclusive manner. “We also welcome the focus on technology as the engine of future-growth and its significance for future generations and their employment prospects,” she noted.

Swaraj will also chair a meeting of Foreign Ministers of IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), another bloc working to deepen coordination among the three countries on major global issues.

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