Describing terrorism as the biggest threat to humanity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday said the scourge not only kills innocents but also severely affects the economic development and social stability.
Speaking at the informal BRICS leaders’ meeting in Osaka onthe sidelines of the G20 summit, Modi said that there is a need to stop all themediums of support to terrorism and racism.
“Terrorism is the biggest threat to humanity. It notonly kills innocents but also severely affects the economic development andsocial stability,” he said.
On terrorism, Prime Minister Modi said it is a globalchallenge and must be collectively fought by the international community,Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told a reporters.
On the deliberations of the BRICS leaders, Gokhale said theyalso discussed multilateral challenges and emphasised that these should bedealt with through the established institutions, instead of”unilateralism”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President VladimirPutin were present.
The Prime Minister also congratulated Jair Bolsonaro onbeing elected as the President of Brazil and welcomed him in the BRICS family.
He also congratulated Cyril Ramaphosa on his election as thePresident of South Africa as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SouthAfrica) leaders met.
In his remarks, Modi spoke about strengthening the WorldTrade Organisation, fighting protectionism, ensuring energy security and theneed to work together to fight terrorism.
“Today, I will focus on the three major challenges.First is the instability and downfall in the global economy. Unilateralism andcompetitiveness are overshadowing the rule-based mutilateral global tradesystems.
“Deficiency of resources, there is a shortfall ofalmost USD 1.3 trillion investment in the infrastructure,” he said.
The second one is to make development sustainable andall-inclusive. Fast changing technologies like digitalisation and climatechange pose a challenge to the current as well as future generations, Modisaid.Development is worthwhile only when it reducesinequality and contribute in empowerment, he said.