BRICS National Security Advisors meeting to be held virtually on Aug 24: MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on August 5, 2021, informed that the next meeting of BRICS National Security Advisors (NSA) will be held on August 24, 2021, in a virtual format.

 MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi informed that India is the current chair for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The next BRICS Nation Security Advisors (NSAs) will be held later this month on August 24 in a virtual format.

Agenda of BRICS National Security Advisors (NSA) 2021

•The BRICS National Security Advisors (NSAs) deliberate on security issues.

•The agenda of the meeting on August 24 will be counter-terrorism cooperation, and international peace and security. The agenda is in line with India’s chosen priorities as the Chair of BRICS meeting this year.

BRICS National Security Advisors (NSA)

•Since 2009, the representatives of BRICS countries have been meeting to deliberate on security issues such as peace and stability, counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, transnational organized crime, and national security of BRICS countries.

•The BRICS Working Group on Security in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) conducts meetings to discuss issues related to cybersecurity.

•The BRICS Working Group on Counter-Terrorism meets to discuss international and regional counter-terrorism issues and to ‘strengthen intelligence and information sharing, facilitate research and development on measures to combat terrorism’.

BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group (CTWG)

•Last, the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) held its sixth meeting virtually on July 28-29 under the Chairship of India.

•The meeting was chaired by Mahaveer Sanghvi, Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism, MEA.

•The meeting concluded in to finalizing the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan containing specific measures to implement the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by BRICS Leaders in 2020.

About BRICS

•BRICS is an abbreviation to represent the group of the world’s leading emerging economies namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

•The BRICS is not an organization but is convened as an annual summit with every five countries chairing the summits and meetings in rotation annually.

•Initially, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China met on the sidelines of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. Later in the same year, the group formalized as BRIC during the 1^st BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

•In 2009, the first BRIC summit was held. In 2010, after the acceptance of South Africa to the group, BRIC was renamed BRICS.

•The BRICS leaders convene meetings and summits to deliberate on issues relating to political and security, economic and financial, and people-to-people exchanges.