Taking on Pakistan at the BRICS summit, India on Sunday said terrorism is a “direct threat” to economic prosperity and growth.
Speaking at the BRICS leaders' meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought action against terrorism and called for an early adoption of CCIT (Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism).
“The most serious direct threat to our economic prosperity is terrorism; tragically, its mothership is a country in India’s neighbourhood,” Mr. Modi said, indirectly referring to Pakistan.
New Delhi’s concerns about cross-border terrorism has been an underlying factor in the ongoing BRICS summit and the various bilateral meetings that India held over the last two days here.
Addressing the media, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said that India thanked Russia for “unequivocal condemnation” of terrorism after the September 18 Uri attack that killed nineteen soldiers. Prime Minister Modi, spoke against terrorism in his speech during the 17 th India-Russia summit that was held on Saturday and pitched for blacklisting of Masood Azhar, Pakistan-based leader of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, at the United Nations, in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China stresses cooperation under SAARC However, a disagreement between China and India was visible after Mr. Modi held talks with President Xi on Saturday evening. Contradicting India’s tough position, which led to the postponement of the Islamabad SAARC summit, President Xi demanded more cooperation under the SAARC framework.
“China and India should consolidate public support for bilateral friendship by boosting exchanges between their political parties, local governments, think tanks, cultural bodies and media organizations,” President Xi said and added, “meanwhile, the two countries should support each other in participating in regional affairs and enhance cooperation within multilateral frameworks including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the East Asia Summit,” Xinhua reported.
On Saturday, President Xi also reached out to South Asian leaders and met with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of Nepal and promised developmental support to Kathmandu.
