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BRICS Meet on Middle East Policy in India
12 April 2017
EIRNS—High-level representatives of the five BRICS countries began a two-day meeting in Visakhapatnam, India, today, to discuss policy for the Middle East. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu opened the meeting with a call for these nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—to "adopt an integrated approach to fight" terrorists who "are indulging in mindless killing of human beings and destroying properties to spread terror." According to the Hindu, the agenda of the BRICS representatives includes "the refugee crisis being created due to civil wars in various countries, rise of Islamic State suicide bombers, terror financing and unabated violence in Israel-Palestine, civil war in Iraq and Syria." Syria’s Ambassador to India, Riad Abbas, expressed his confidence in the BRICS, in a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. He said that he would be meeting Indian officials soon to brief them on what happened in Khan Sheikhoum. "We are relaxed and happy with India’s stand from the beginning of the Syrian crisis. India’s stand was balanced as other BRICS nations." Before the BRICS meeting opened, the Russian and Chinese representatives (Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Special Envoy on the Middle East Gong Xiaosheng) met separately to discuss the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly the military-political situation in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya, and prospects for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Both "pointed out the importance of continued coordination of Moscow and Beijing’s positions at the bilateral level and within the framework of BRICS and the UN, the continued multifaceted Russian-Chinese cooperation aimed at facilitating a peaceful settlement of the Middle East conflicts through negotiations, as well as uncompromising struggle against the threat of terrorism that comes therefrom, based on respect for the fundamental principles of international law," Russia’s Foreign Ministry reported afterwards. [RMA/GGS] |