At BRICS NSAs meet, anti-terror planned topped focus

New Delhi, Sep 18: The National Security Advisors of Brazil-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping discussed a draft anti-terrorism strategy. This is expected to be approved in the upcoming summit.

While there was speculation rife that there would be a bilateral discussion between NSA Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart, no such meeting took place. The NSAs of the five nations discussed challenges and threats to global and national security.

External Affairs Ministry, spokesperson, Anurag Srivastava told a news briefing that this was a virtual meeting and the bilateral talks are not possible in this format.

Further, the NSAs also discussed biological security cooperations and information and communications technology security. There was a proposal continue work on a system to counter security threats in the sphere of information.

Concerns were raised over the escalation of tensions around Iran, Venezuela and Syria, according to the Russian statement. The Russian side criticised the deployment of weapons in space by the United States and also the use of outer space for military operations.

Russia proposed the creation of new mechanisms in the field of countering epidemiological threats and to conduct expert consultations on bio-safety in the BRICS format.