New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired the 13th BRICS Summit via video conferencing. “India has received full cooperation from all members during its chairship of BRICS. I thank all members for this,” PM Modi said in his opening remarks.
Talking about the theme selected by India for the duration of its chairship – ‘BRICS @ 15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’ – PM Modi said these 4 Cs are basic principles of the Brics partnership.
He said, “We have to ensure that Brics is more productive in the next 15 years.”
“Brics has many achievements in last one-and-a-half decades. Today we are an influential voice for emerging economies of the world,” PM Modi said, adding: “We need to ensure that Brics is more productive in the next 15 years.”
We have also adopted Brics Counter-Terrorism Action Plan, the Indian Prime Minister said at the summit on Thursday.
The PM also said that for the first time, Brics has taken collective position on strengthening and reforming multilateral systems.
The withdrawal of US forces and its allies from Afghanistan has led to a new crisis, Russian Pres Vladimir Putin said at the Brics meet, adding: “It’s still unclear how this will affect global and regional security.”
As President Putin hit out at the US, he said “Afghanistan crisis is a threat to its neighbours.”
“It is for good reason that our countries have paid special attention to this [Afghanistan crisis] issue,” President Putin said.
“Afghanistan should not become a threat to its neighbouring countries, a source of terrorism and drug trafficking,” Putin also said.
The 13th BRICS Summit is a virtual meeting of world leaders but India is the chair country.
Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the meeting.