Russia's Putin addresses BRICS summit; touts nations' contact on energy research platform

While speaking at the BRICS virtual summit on Tuesday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that all the BRICS nations have maintained 'intensive contacts' for the development of an Energy Research Cooperation Platform. Putin said, 'Intensive contacts have been underway between our academic and scientific centres. Their coverage is truly impressive - from the ocean and polar research to astronomy and artificial intelligence. Experts from the five countries carry out joint energy research. Reports have been prepared on the projected development of the fuel and energy sectors in the BRICS countries until 2040.'

Speaking further about the COVID-19 vaccine, the Russian President told BRICS leaders that coronavirus vaccines developed in Russia 'work effectively and safely' and urged the group of emerging economy nations to 'join forces' for the mass production of the shots. Putin’s remarks on the vaccine come after early results of large studies of several experimental Coronavirus vaccines, including a Russian one, were announced. The BRICS grouping comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

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PM Modi addresses 12th BRICS virtual summit

BRICS on Tuesday adopted a new counter-terrorism strategy to effectively deal with the menace, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that there is a need to ensure that countries supporting terrorists are held guilty, a call backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who dubbed such nations 'black sheep of the family'.

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PM Narendra Modi, while addressing the 12th BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) summit, held virtually, said terrorism is the 'biggest problem' the world is facing, and needed to be dealt with in an organised manner.

At the summit, which was also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Prime Minister talked about the "crisis" facing multilateralism and highlighted the need for reform of the United Nations Security Council as well as various other key global bodies.

PM Modi said, "Terrorism is the biggest problem the world is facing. We have to ensure that the countries that support and assist the terrorists are also held guilty and the problem is dealt with in an organised manner. We are happy that the BRICS counter-terrorism strategy has been finalised during the chairmanship of Russia. This is an important achievement and India will take this forward further during its presidency."

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The Prime Minister's remarks pitching for holding the countries supporting terrorism guilty was quickly supported by Putin as he said some countries were like the “black sheep of the family” and the world should not show any complacency in dealing with challenges like terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a subsequent intervention after his address, Narendra Modi also suggested that the National Security Advisers of the member countries can deliberate on framing a counter-terrorism action plan. He further suggested that the BRICS Business Council can make a concrete plan to take the mutual business among the member nations to the target of USD 500 billion.

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(With ANI inputs)