Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the BRICS group has made many achievements in the last one and a half decades of its existence, to become an influential voice for the emerging economies and focused on the priorities of developing countries.
In his opening remarks as the chairman of the 13th BRICS Summit in a virtual format, PM Modi said, “We have to ensure that BRICS is even more productive in the next 15 years.”
“The theme that India has chosen for its presidency reflects this priority – BRICS at 15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus,” Prime Minister Modi said.
The summit was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
PM Modi pointed out that despite the Covid situation this year, over 150 BRICS meetings and events were organised. Of these, over 20 were ministerial-level. BRICS agenda achieved many firsts this year as well.
“It was the first time that BRICS took a shared position on strengthening and improving multilateral systems. We have also adopted the BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan, in which information gathered by the members including through satellite is being used effectively,” he added.
Recently the first "BRICS Digital Health Conference" was organised. This is an innovative step to increase health access with the help of technology. India’s Water Resources Minister will meet for the first time in BRICS format in November, he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the BRICS summit and spoke about the Afghanistan crisis. "Global security has faced serious challenges and system of strategic stability has gone all downhill. US and allies' withdrawal from Afghanistan has led to new crisis and it is still unclear how it will affect regional and global security," he said.
President Putin said the international situation had become more challenging due to the Covid-19 pandemic and regional conflicts which had become more violent. He said the Afghanistan people should be allowed to manage their own affairs and decide their future after 20 years of hard fighting.
But at the same time he said that the Afghanistan territory should not be allowed to be used for promoting terrorism and drug trafficking which has a destabilizing influence in the region.
The Russian President criticized the USA and its allies for trying to impose its value system on the people of Afghanistan and then suddenly leaving them in a situation of chaos and uncertainty after 20 years of interference.
“Now the international community has to clear the mess they have left behind,” the Russian President lamented.
Chinese President Xi Jinping in his opening remarks said that the BRICS countries had made solid progress in their co-operation and had emerged as a force to reckon with on the international stage. He said he was looking forward to in-depth discussions on various issues at the BRICS summit.
He also said that China would be hosting the next BRICS summit and he looked forward to deepening ties among the member nations in all areas of so-operation and creating a better future.
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