Unabated terrorism, ISIS and role of technology, and luring of innocent youth through Twitter, Facebook and other micro-blogging sites dominated the discussions on the first day of the two-day meeting of BRICS envoys here on Tuesday.
The meeting, among other things, discussed the evolving situation in the West Asia, the peace process and the current stage, conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Palestine.
It also discussed the latest terror activities and the status of implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions to check terrorism.
“Terrorism, terror funding, use of latest technologies by terror networks, and the current situation are being discussed at the Visakhapatnam meeting,” Joint Secretary (West Asia and North Africa) B. Bala Bhaskar told The Hindu .
He said that the situation was fast deteriorating, and no one was able to know who was bombing whom due to the alarming rise in terror strikes by suicide bombers and other tactics to strike terror.
Mr. Bhaskar said that they would deliberate on the need to evolve a common strategy to safeguard their interests in such deteriorating conflict situations.
“The Syrian crisis is creating a complex and humanitarian crisis. The situation is fragile in Iraq as a state of turmoil is witnessed there,” he said.
“We exchanged our views on the prevailing situation and underlined the need for an integrated effort for finding solutions,” he said. In West Asia and North Africa, 50 million Indians are working.
Humanitarian help
“We are dependent on the West Asia for import of 80% of our crude. Our humanitarian effort in rescuing seven million people stranded in the civil war areas in Iraq, Yemen, North Africa, and Libya is well acclaimed,” Mr. Bhaskar said.
He said that they had already launched a joint initiative by forming a working group of BRICS member-countries on counter terrorism. He said India had sent medicines worth $1 million to Somalia and South Sudan, extended aid worth $50 million to Palestine in the field of education and training and Letter of Credit to several strife-torn countries.
Alok A. Dimri, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Economic Relations), MEA, later said BRICS was regularly taking stock of the situation in various regions to take joint action to protect the interests of the member-countries.
