Terrorism will be among a gamut of issues that will be discussed at the meeting of five-nation BRICS policy planning dialogue here tomorrow, a senior External Affairs Ministry official said here today.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is hosting a day-long BRICS policy planning dialogue here where representatives of BRICS nations - Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa - would discuss and deliberate on a wide range of global issues and of mutual interest.
"The issue of terrorism is high priority for India... Terrorism is one of the issues that will be discussed in BRICS meeting (tomorrow)," Joint Secretary (Policy, Planning and Dialogue, MEA) Santosh Jha told reporters here.
In reply to a query on whether the issue of terrorism would be discussed in BRICS meeting in view of Pakistan's recent stand on developments in Jammu and Kashmir, Jha said "Is it possible that India participates in a meeting and it will not discuss the issue of terrorism? It will certainly be discussed."
The dialogue in Patna is part of the preparation for BRICS summit to be held in Goa in October this year.
While replying to a question on whether the issue of South China Sea would be taken up, Jha said "South China Sea is certainly part of the globe and every issue will be discussed at the meeting. But, the dialogue is not focused on this (South China Sea) issue."
During the day-long dialogue tomorrow, representatives would discuss as to what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for the member nations, how to benefit from the changes taking place across the world, how to protect India's interest and what are its priorities.
The meeting would also deliberate upon the prevailing situation in the region, more so in the neighbourhood of respective countries and how to find a convergence on the national priorities of member countries, the Joint Secretary said.
The dialogue would seek to enhance sharing of best
practises in foreign policy planning and assessment among the BRICS countries, Jha said.
"India, as the Chair of BRICS-2016, is taking forward the policy planning talks initiated under the chairmanship of Russia in 2015 in line with this year's theme - Building, Responsiveness, Inclusive and Collective Solutions," he said.
BRICS represents the coming together of five major world economies which is 37 per cent of world's GDP and 17 per cent of the world's trade, besides BRICS nations are home to 43 per cent of population, he said.
"This is the first time that MEA is hosting an official foreign police related engagement in Patna," Jha said, adding this was the part of 95 meetings at various levels, scheduled to take place during India's BRICS chairmanship, which was being done to expand the BRICS footprint across India and to disseminate BRICS awareness among the people.
A series of events in this regard are proposed to be organised during India's chairmanship including BRICS Under-17 football tournament, youth summit, young diplomats' forum, young scientists' conclave, film festival, smart cities workshop, friendship cities conclave, wellness conclave, digital conclave etc, he said.
Jha said heads of delegations were also scheduled to call on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today while they would meet Governor Ramnath Kovind tomorrow.
Some of the delegates have evinced interest to go to Rajgir, Nalanda, he said.
The respective Foreign Office delegation shall be led by Michel Arslanian Neta (Deputy Head of Policy Planning of Brazil), Oleg Stepanov (Head of Policy Planning of Russia), Wang Wenbin (Acting DG Policy Planning of China) and David Malcolmson (Chief Director, Regional Organisations of South Africa), while the Indian delegation would be led by Jha.
