Jaishankar participates in BRICS Foreign Ministers online meeting
New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday called for expansion of the international bodies, including United Nation Security Council (UNSC) in both permanent and non-permanent categories.
During the meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations through video conferencing, Dr Jaishankar also called for reformed multilateralism including reform of international bodies like United Nation, World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund, World Health Organisation among others.
He emphasized the need to reform them to reflect contemporary global realities and the feelings of millions of people in the world as the UN completes 75 years.
“The discussions centred around overview of global situation – new threats and challenges, regional hot spots. The ministers discussed possible BRICS cooperation on international fora including on key issues on the 75 UNGA agenda,” an official statement said.
Thank FM Sergey Lavrov for convening the #BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting today.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 4, 2020
Positively assessed the progress made during the Russian Chair, especially in counter-terrorism, economic cooperation, ICTs and people-to-people contacts. pic.twitter.com/QOZMliC9tW
During the meeting, the minister also highlighted the scourge of terrorism and called for enhanced BRICS cooperation in countering terrorism.
He expressed satisfaction on the conclusion of BRICS Counter Terrorism Strategy.
Dr Jaishankar assured the BRICS partners that, as BRICS Chair in 2021, India will continue the work to strengthen intra-BRICS cooperation in all the three pillars viz. political and security, economic and trade and people to people.
He indicated that “our effort would be to consolidate intra BRICS solidarity and provide concrete institutional framework for the purpose.”
The BRICS Foreign Ministers also reviewed the progress of activities under three pillars of BRICS cooperation and possible outcomes under Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020.
He highlighted that in the wake of grave challenges in economic, political and social and health fields BRICS has an important role to play.
Dr Jaishankar highlighted the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiated by India as a dynamic and mutually beneficial global economic engagement, covering five key pillars, including- economy, infrastructure, technology, demography and demand, to help achieve rapid growth and development.
India also reaffirmed its strong support for Russian BRICS Chairship in 2020 and the upcoming BRICS Leaders’ Summit under the overall theme of “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth”.
