Leaders of BRICS countries will meet virtually on Thursday chaired by India, with Chinese analysts predicting Afghanistan and relevant topics could top the agenda, as it closely concerns three member states. Yet they believe New Delhi's attempt to retrieve its losses and regain a say on this topic will be in vain, due to its past strategy on Afghanistan.
Sources familiar with developments of the BRICS summit told ANI that the leaders will also deliberate on important global and regional issues including Afghanistan, on which leaders are likely to underscore the priority of fighting terrorism, including preventing attempts by terror organizations to use Afghanistan as a sanctuary to carry out attacks against other countries.
This is the second time Prime Minister Modi will be chairing the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit. Earlier, he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the 15th anniversary of BRICS, as reflected in the theme for the summit".
The Afghan issue will also be on the agenda as "three of the BRICS countries, China, Russia and India, are Afghan neighbors and key regional countries," Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
There is a global concern that Afghanistan may re-emerge as a springboard of radicalism and terrorism, as per a Financial Express report.
Xi and Putin had talked in August about enhancing bilateral coordination on the topic. Therefore, the main challenge is to deal with the new government in Kabul. There is a consensus that Afghanistan should not become a haven for terror groups.
BRICS states have reached a consensus at terrorism should be condemned. In the sixth meeting of the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group, held on July 28-29, 2021, an Action Plan was laid out which aimed at cooperation in areas such as preventing and combating terrorism, radicalisation, financing of terrorism, misuse of the internet by terrorists, information sharing among others.
