News Analysis India

Tag: BRICS

  • ‘Normal Relations With China Not Possible If…’: S Jaishankar Talks Tough On Border Issues |

    NEW DELHI: In a candid revelation on the strained relations between India and China, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar on Saturday emphasized that the resolution of border issues is paramount for the restoration of normalcy in diplomatic ties.

    ‘Border Solution Essential For Normal Relations’

    EAM Jaishankar, addressing the complexities surrounding India-China relations, stated, “I have explained to my Chinese counterpart that unless you find a solution on the border, if the forces will remain face-to-face and there will be tension, then you should not expect that the rest of the relations will go on in a normal manner, it is impossible.”

     

    #WATCH | On India & China relations, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, “…I have explained to my Chinese counterpart that unless you find a solution on the border, if the forces will remain face-to-face and there will be tension, then you should not expect that the rest of the relations… pic.twitter.com/ej06WcCdzz
    — ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2024

     

    Deterioration In India-China Ties Over The Past Three Years

    Expressing a desire for improved relations with China, Jaishankar highlighted the unfortunate turn of events over the last three years, attributing the strain to China’s failure to uphold agreements at the border. He asserted, “We would certainly like our relation with China to be better than what it is today, but things have taken a turn for the worse in the last 3 years, not because of us. They have chosen not to observe the agreements at the border.”

    Jaishankar pointed out the disregard for mutual agreements in 2020, emphasizing that the foundational principles of the relationship were not adhered to. He stated, “In 2020, agreements were disregarded; mutuality at which this relationship is predicated has not been followed.”

    India’s Changing Global Role

    Asserting India’s growing influence on the world stage, Jaishankar emphasized that no major global issue is decided without New Delhi’s consultation. He highlighted India’s transformation, becoming the fifth-largest economy and underlining the nation’s evolving global perception.

    Addressing concerns about India’s participation in groups with conflicting interests, Jaishankar emphasized India’s independence and the need to manage its interests by engaging with diverse nations. He stated, “Our nature is to be independent. We cannot and we should not be part of somebody else’s subsidiary or enterprise.”

    Quad And BRICS: Balancing Conflicting Interests

    Discussing India’s involvement in Quad and BRICS, Jaishankar explained that India, being a 5000-year-old civilization, must navigate its interests independently. Quad aims to secure a rules-based global order, while BRICS focuses on enhancing economic cooperation among member nations.

    Transformative Decade For India

    Jaishankar reflected on the transformative decade for India, highlighting the country’s rapid development in infrastructure, education, and digitalization. He underscored the world’s increasing interest in India, citing the rise in talent and attracting substantial foreign investments.

    Looking Ahead: The Next 25 Years

    In conclusion, Jaishankar echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Amrit Kaal’ and envisioned the current decade as the foundation for the next 25 years of India’s growth and global influence.

  • BRICS members should provide mutual support in designation of terrorists: PM Narendra Modi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said at the BRICS virtual summit that member nations should understand security concerns of each other and provide mutual support in the designation of terrorists and that this sensitive issue should not be “politicised”, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

    The comments came days after China blocked a joint proposal by India and the US to designate Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as an international terrorist under the UN sanctions committee. In a statement, the MEA provided the details of the prime minister’s suggestions and comments at the two-day BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) summit that concluded on Friday.

    “The Prime Minister also noted that as BRICS member we should understand security concerns of each other and provide mutual support in designation of terrorists; this sensitive issue should not be politicised,” the MEA said.

    After China blocked the proposal to designate Makki, Indian government sources said the decision runs counter to its claim of combating terrorism and signals its “double standards”. Makki has been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youths to resort to violence and planning attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

    At the BRICS summit, the prime minister also highlighted India’s development partnership with Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia, and from Pacific to the Caribbean, the MEA said. The BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.

  • India to attend China-hosted BRICS Summit virtually in June-end

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: After attending the BRICS Sherpas meeting virtually last week, India will attend the BRICS Summit, to be hosted by China virtually. It is likely to be held towards the end of June. The Summit will be attended by PM Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the heads of state of Brazil and South Africa.

    Although India-China’s standoff – over issues concerning the Line of Actual Control – remains a prickly matter, the Summit will be an important one diplomatically, according to experts. Prior to it, India will also attend an in-person Quad Summit on May 24 in Tokyo.

    Both Quad and BRICS are diametrically opposite groupings. In Quad the US has positioned itself against China and wants to focus on Indo-Pacific and has also managed to rally support against Russia by the other members (Australia, Japan) barring India. India has maintained that it wants a peaceful resolution to the conflict. 

    BRICS on the other hand has Russia and China at centre-stage and is seen as a grouping which is against the US. With sanctions imposed on Russia and China being continuously criticised by the US, India will be at odds here too. The issue gets compounded as India and China have not had very cordial relations since the Galwan conflict.

    In both the groupings India has so far maintained its own position – which is of neutrality. Close on the heels of the BRICS Summit is the G7 Summit, which is scheduled to take place between June 26th and 28th.

    India has yet to receive a formal invite for this, though since the past three G7 meetings it has always been invited. It is a tightrope for India when it comes to diplomacy, however, it has managed well so far having its way without antagonising any grouping.

    Meanwhile, during the BRICS Sherpa meet (April 13), discussions were held on various matters, said the Ministry of External Affairs. Those who attended the meeting agreed to further strengthen solidarity and cooperation to address multiple challenges faced globally, including the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery.

    The meeting was chaired by Ma Zhaoxu, Sherpa for BRICS affairs and vice-foreign minister of China. It was attended by Sherpas of India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa.

  • BRICS to stem Afghanistan terror export laid in joint declaration

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Countering terror, particularly in the context of the Afghanistan upheaval, dominated discussions on Thursday at the five-nation BRICS virtual summit chaired by India, with all heads of state collectively agreeing to combat the export of terror and cooperate to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

    “We call for refraining from violence and settling the situation by peaceful means. We stress the need to contribute to fostering an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order in the country. We underscore the priority of fighting terrorism, including preventing attempts by terrorist organisations to use Afghan territory as terrorist sanctuary and to carry out attacks against other countries, as well as drug trade within Afghanistan. We emphasise the need to address the humanitarian situation and to uphold human rights, including those of women, children and minorities,” a joint declaration adopted at the end of the summit, called the New Delhi Declaration, stated.

    Secretary (CPV) in the ministry of external affairs, Sanjay Bhattacharya, said there was strong consensus on condemning terrorism, including cross-border terror, terror financing and the springing up of radical organisations.

    Bhattacharya said many agreements, including the one calling for reforms of multilateral organisations, remote sensing satellite constellation, agriculture reforms and cooperation and some others related to the New Development Bank (NDB) were finalised or endorsed during the summit attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

    In his opening address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said BRICS has adopted a counter-terrorism action plan that was drawn up by national security advisors of the member states. Putin said the situation in Afghanistan must not become a threat to its neighbours. “Russia, just like its BRICS partners, consistently supports the establishment of the long-awaited peace and stability in Afghanistan.” 

    Reject double standards“We reject double standards in countering terrorism and extremism conducive to terrorism. We call for expeditious finalisation and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism within the UN framework,” the BRICS joint declaration said

  • Need to ensure that BRICS is more productive in next 15 years: PM Modi at virtual summit

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The BRICS has adopted a counter-terrorism action plan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday while chairing a virtual summit of the five-nation grouping.

    The summit is being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro.

    The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.

    ALSO READ | 13th BRICS summit to take place on September 9 under India’s chairmanship

    India hosted the summit in its capacity as its chair.

    “It is a matter of great pleasure for me and India to chair this summit on occasion of the 15th anniversary of BRICS,” the Prime Minister said.

    India has received full cooperation from all BRICS partners during its presidency of the grouping, he noted.

    The Prime Minister said the BRICS has made many achievements in the last one and a half decades and that it is an influential voice for emerging economies of the world today.

    Asserting that it is for the first time that BRICS has taken a collective position on strengthening and reforming multilateral systems, Modi said,”we have to ensure that BRICS is more productive in the next 15 years”.

  • Afghanistan crisis, counter terrorism among issues discussed in BRICS meet

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  India on Tuesday chaired the meeting of National Security Advisors of BRICS nations virtually where discussions ranged from Afghanistan to counter-terrorism and international peace and security. The meeting assumes significance as it comes at a time when the security situation in Afghanistan is tense.

    Also, it was the first time that representatives of India and China came on one platform after the Taliban took over the reins in Afghanistan. Beijing has said it would recognise the Taliban government, a decision taken after a delegation of Taliban leaders met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month. 

    The meeting, chaired by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, saw representatives of all member states participate. India last week had said the discussions in the meeting would be held in accordance with India’s priorities as the chair.

    Before the meeting, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China hoped it can play a balanced role in the dynamic situation in Afghanistan to ensure steady transition and help Afghanistan move towards development. Sources said discussions in the meeting revolved around strengthening security cooperation among member countries.

    “Considerable attention was paid to the heightened risk of growth of illegal drug production and trafficking in the region. It was agreed that concerned agencies in BRICS countries will enhance their cooperation in this area,” a statement from the Union Ministry of External Affairs said. 

  • Researchers from BRICS nations to study impact of severe Covid on TB patients

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: BRICS countries are working on a programme to study the impact of severe COVID-19 conditions on tuberculosis (TB) patients, the Department of Biotechnology said on Monday. 

    The SARS-CoV-2 NGS (Next Generation Sequencing)-BRICS consortium is an interdisciplinary collaboration to advance COVID-19 health-relevant knowledge and to contribute to improvements in health outcomes, it said.

    The consortium, comprising researchers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), will accelerate translation of genomic data from clinical and surveillance samples, the government’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said.

    This will be done utilising high-end genomic technologies, and epidemiologic and bioinformatics tools and this information will be used in diagnostic assays and tracking transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and other viruses, as well as lead to clinical and public health research and interventions, it said.

    “The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with BRICS countries is implementing the SARS-CoV-2 NGS-BRICS consortium and multi-centric programme to study the impact of severe COVID-19 conditions on TB patients,” the DBT said.

    The Indian team has members from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (Prof. Arindam Maitra, Prof. Saumitra Das, Dr. Nidhan K Biswas), the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (Dr. Ashwin Dalal) and the Indian Institute of Science (Dr. Mohit K Jolly), it said.

    Dr. Ana Tereza Ribeiro de Vasconcelos of Brazil’s National Laboratory for Scientific Computation, Prof. Georgii Bazykin of Russia’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Prof. Mingkun Li of China’s Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Tulio de Oliveira of South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal are the other members of the consortium, the DBT said.

    In a second multi-centric programme, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from India, Brazil and South Africa will investigate the impact of severe COVID-19 on transient peripheral immunosuppression and lung hyperinflammation conditions in TB patients for epidemiology and comorbidity, the department said.

    This team consists of members from the India’s National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (Dr. Subash Babu, Dr. Anuradha Rajamanickam, Dr. Banurekha Velayutham and Dr. Dina Nair).

    Besides them, the members from Brazil are Dr. Valeria Cavalcanti Rolla and Dr. Adriano Gomes da Silva of the Lapclin-Tb/ INI-FIOCRUZ, Dr. Maria Cristina Lourenço of the LBB/INI-FIOCRUZ and Dr. Bruno de Bezerril Andrade from IGM-FIOCRUZ; and from South Africa are researchers Dr. Bavesh Kana, Dr. Bhavna Gordhan, Dr. Neil Martinson and Dr. Ziyaad Waja of the University of the Witwatersrand, the DBT said.

    “This collaborative study is expected to provide valuable co-morbidity data pertaining to pulmonary TB patients with or without COVID-19 co-infection that is expected to be generated for better disease management,” it said.

    Secretary in the DBT Renu Swarup said the department has taken small steps in the right direction towards collaboration with BRICS countries.

  • BRICS signs deal on cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing

    By PTI

    BENGALURU: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) signed an agreement for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

    The pact inked on Wednesday enables building a virtual constellation of specified remote sensing satellites of BRICS space agencies and their respective ground stations will receive the data, ISRO said.

    “This will contribute in strengthening multilateral cooperation among BRICS space agencies in meeting the challenges faced by mankind, such as global climate change, major disasters and environmental protection,” the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.

    The agreement was signed under India’s BRICS Chairship, it was stated.

    Secretary (Consular, Passport, Visa & Overseas Indian Affairs) & India’s BRICS Sherpa, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, was present.

    “#BRICS reached major landmark today with signing of Agr on BRICS Satellite Constellation by Heads of Space Agencies It will promote cooperation & use space data & applications for development & social objectives outlined in SDGs, providing benefit to citizens #BRICSIndia2021”, Bhattacharyya tweeted.

    Chairman of ISRO and Secretary in Department of Space, K Sivan, Administrator of China National Space Administration, Zhang Kejian, Chief Executive Officer of South African National Space Agency, Valanathan Munsami, President of Brazilian Space Agency, Carlos Augusto Teixeira de Moura, and Director General of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, signed the agreement.

  • BRICS for partnership in strengthening agro-biodiversity to ensure food security

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: BRICS nations have pitched for closer ties in strengthening agro-biodiversity to ensure food and nutrition security, the government said on Saturday.

    The issue was discussed in the working group of agriculture represented by top agriculture officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) virtually on August 12-13.

    The group stressed on having closer ties in strengthening cooperation and research in the field of agriculture, an official statement said.

    In the meeting, the group shared that the United Nation has noted BRICS countries are well positioned to take a leading role in helping to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate hunger and poverty.

    The strong agricultural research base in BRICS countries and the need to harness and share knowledge, facilitate transfer of technologies from lab to land to provide improved solutions for enhanced productivity, especially in the face of climate change, maintaining agro biodiversity and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources was acknowledged, it added.

    According to the statement, India has developed the BRICS Agriculture Research Platform to promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural research, extension, technology transfer, training and capacity building.

    This was done with an intention to encourage research cooperation for improving the use and application of agricultural technologies so that the needs of producers and processors are met, it said.

    A joint declaration of the eleventh meeting of BRICS and action plan for 2021-24 for agricultural cooperation of BRICS countries and BRICS Agriculture Research Platform were also discussed in depth.

    The BRICS Working Group meeting will endorse the Action Plan of 2021-24 for adoption in the BRICS meeting, the statement added.

  • BRICS finalises action plan to combat terrorism, radicalisation, terror financing

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: An action plan aimed at strengthening result-oriented cooperation among the BRICS countries to combat terrorism, radicalisation and terror financing will be adopted at a meeting of the national security advisors of the grouping next month.

    The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that the action plan was finalised at a meeting of the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) that took place virtually on July 28 and 29.

    “The BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan is one of the key deliverables during India’s chairship of BRICS and will be adopted at the meeting of BRICS National Security Advisors scheduled next month,” the MEA said.

    BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.

    India has been strongly pitching for deeper cooperation among the BRICS member countries in dealing with terrorism, extremism and radicalisation.

    At the CTWG meeting, the BRICS countries exchanged views on the assessment of the threat from terrorism at the national, regional and global levels and resolved to further enhance counter-terrorism cooperation in line with the action plan, the MEA said in a statement.

    It said the countries also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. The 6th meeting of the CTWG was held under the chairship of India.

    “The main outcome of the working group meeting was the finalisation of the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan containing specific measures to implement the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by BRICS Leaders in 2020,” the MEA said.

    “The action plan is aimed at further strengthening result-oriented cooperation between BRICS countries in areas such as preventing and combating terrorism, radicalisation, financing of terrorism, misuse of internet by terrorists, curbing travel of terrorists, border control, protection of soft targets and information sharing,” it said.

    Mahaveer Singhvi, joint secretary for counter-terrorism in the MEA, chaired the CTWG meeting while senior counter-terrorism officials from all BRICS countries participated in it.