BRICS summit: Isolating Pakistan and stepping up terror game at the top of agenda conveys NSA Ajit Doval

All the member countries of SAARC, with the exception of Pakistan, will be present at the 2016 BRICS Summit in Goa.

Goa, October 14: The BRICS summit set to happen in Goa starting tomorrow, is bound to  be eventful for more reasons than one. This is the first summit of a grouping of countries that India is participating in after the SAARC summit was cancelled due to Pakistan’s involvement in propagating terrorism. It is for this reason, that, though, increasing mutual trade and the global economy are definite parts of the agenda for the summit, India will leave no stone unturned to impress upon the other members the threat it is facing from terrorism emanating across its borders.

The BRICS summit in Goa will also include members of the BIMSTEC grouping. India will also be welcoming Afghanistan and the Maldives as special invitees. This essentially ensures that all the member countries of SAARC, with the exception of Pakistan, will be present. the situation ensures that Narendra Modi can further his promise of isolating Pakistan globally.

There is, of course, resistance and restraint that is expected from China which has close ties with Pakistan. However, at the basic level, President Xi Jin Ping is expected to condemn  “terrorism in all its forms”, which diplomats say will probably a part of the final summit declarations. Narendra Modi will even have bilateral talks with Xi Jin Ping in which the issue is set to be brought up along with china’s refusal to allow the UN declaration of Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, a terrorist status. (ALSO READ: BRICS Summit 2016: Narendra Modi’s plate fully loaded for the upcoming meet in Goa)

Amar Sinha,a senior official from the MEA, told a BRICS pre-summit briefing,“We will be looking at the global economic and political situation, and obviously, terrorism is a very important part of that.” India’s economic clout may be just the thing that pushes China to finally berate Pakistan, believe some. This is definitely a lever that the Modi government will be pulling. According to Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate at the Wilson Center in Washington who focuses on South Asia, “Contrary to the public messaging in Islamabad, China is not the perpetual jolly partner when it comes to its relations with Pakistan.” He further believes, “With China’s investments and economic assets growing in Pakistan, it’s only natural that it would worry. All militants, whether ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as characterised by Pakistan, threaten stability and by extension China’s economic interests.”

Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has proposed to his counterparts of the BRICS countries to step up anti-terror cooperation and put in place a legal regime. He has specified that this needs to be done without getting entangled on the issue of “definition of terrorism”. According to sources, Doval’s idea has gained a lot of traction among top leaders and diplomats of the BRICS countries. Further, three working groups are set to be created among the BRICS for cooperation on cyber security, counter-terrorism and energy security.

Commenting on this, Amar Sinha said, “In the meeting, our NSA had suggested perhaps we can move on terror cooperation without actually coming to a definition of terrorism because everybody knows. When a terrorist act happens you know exactly what is terrorism. So you don’t have to first start defining it. You take the act as a terrorist act and work backwards. So that is one of the suggestions but I am sure we will push that.”