New Delhi: Leaders of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — Thursday urged the Taliban caretaker government in Afghanistan to refrain from violence and settle the crisis in the country through peaceful means.
The New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the end of the 13th BRICS Summit that was hosted by India, said: “We follow with concern the latest developments in Afghanistan. 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.”
The declaration also condemned the terrorist attacks that took place near the Hamid Karzai Kabul International Airport on 26 August, which led to the deaths of 95 Afghans and 13 US troops.
“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,” the BRICS leaders said.
They added, “We emphasise the need to address the humanitarian situation and to uphold human rights, including those of women, children and minorities.”
While Afghanistan was mentioned in the declaration, it was only Russian President Vladimir Putin who talked about the situation in the country during the opening remarks of the summit. Putin slammed the US and its allies for the manner in which the withdrawal of troops was undertaken, which ended on 30 August.
“The withdrawal of US forces and its allies from Afghanistan has led to a new crisis, and it’s still unclear how this will affect global and regional security. It is for good reason that our countries have paid special attention to this issue. Afghanistan should not become a threat to its neighbouring countries, a source of terrorism and drug trafficking,” Putin said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired the summit, underscored the need for BRICS to become more “result oriented”.
“We must ensure that BRICS is even more result oriented in the next 15 years,” said PM Modi.
He added that the BRICS agenda now spans culture and communications, sports and space, disaster resilience and digital health, employment and environment, and more.
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BRICS on terrorism, Covid
The BRICS Summit also saw the adoption of an agreement on the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan.
According to Sanjay Bhattacharya, secretary (CPV and OIA), Ministry of External Affairs and BRICS Sherpa, said, “There was strong condemnation of terrorism by the leaders during the BRICS Summit and that Afghanistan should not be used for terrorism and drug-trafficking and it should (not) spill over to the neighbourhood … The role of UNSC was also referred to in this context.”
In a media briefing, Bhattacharya added that Putin’s reference to preventing terrorism from Afghanistan is in support of India’s stand on the matter.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to do more in managing the crisis evolving in Afghanistan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, talked about how the BRICS countries have made progress in terms of cooperation and strategic communication.
“Over the past 15 years, our five countries have enhanced strategic communication and political trust in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and equality and explored a sound path to interact with each other. Our five countries have sought synergy between our development policies and drawn on our complementarities,” said Xi.
He added: “We have made solid progress in various areas of cooperation in the spirit of pragmatism, innovation. And we have forged ahead on our common journey of development.”
The issue of access to Covid vaccines and their equitable distribution was also discussed at the summit.
“The only way in which we can respond to the coronavirus pandemic is by ensuring equal access to Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In a joint statement released after the summit, the leaders said, “We acknowledge that in an interconnected and globalized world, no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
“Recognizing that the production of COVID-19 vaccines has provided the greatest hope to conquer the pandemic and that COVID-19 extensive immunization is a global public good, we regret the glaring inequity in access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, especially for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.”
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