HAMBURG: Amid border tension between India and China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the fight against terrorism by the BRICS grouping during the chairmanship of President Xi Jinping has got a new direction.
“I give my good wishes to President Xi Jinping for the 9th BRICS Summit,” Mr Modi said addressing the BRICS leaders in an informal meet organised on the sidelines of G20 Summit here.
Mr Modi called for coordinated action on terror safe havens and terror financing.
He said the G20 grouping should also focus on taking concrete steps against the “safe havens” of terrorism.
“It is time there is need for taking strong steps against terrorism,” Mr Modi said.
The Prime Minister also assured the Chinese President that India will extend all sort of cooperation to him in the running of the BRICS affairs during his presidency.
The 9th BRICS Summit will be held in China’s Xiamen city from September 3-5. The theme of this years event is ‘BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future’.
India yesterday sought to snub Chinese authorities and suggested that no one-on-one meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Jinping at the G20 Summit at Hamburg were planned earlier.
“There is no change in the Prime Minister’s schedule,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay has said in response to a query.
The response came close on the heels, a Chinese spokesperson said at Beijing that Mr Modi and Mr Jinping are unlikely to have any meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit due to the worsening border dispute and that the “atmosphere was not right”.
The Chinese President last year had said: “China will work with all countries concerned on the implementation of the consensus reached at the previous summits to expand partnership and write a new chapter in the history of cooperation within BRICS”.
Xi Jinping was Xiamen City’s deputy mayor in 1980s. The city is known as one of China’s major tourist destinations. (AGENCIES)
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