BRICS may put forward security initiatives during Indian chairmanship

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The BRICS group may put forward new security initiatives during India’s chairmanship, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview published on the PIR Center think tank’s website.

“As India prepares to assume the chairmanship, we look forward with anticipation to our Indian partners presenting their perspectives on key priorities of BRICS. I anticipate that in the coming year we may hear something new from BRICS even in the sphere of ‘hard security’,” he noted.

According to Ryabkov, BRICS “will continue to focus on hard security in the broad sense of this term.” “However, it does not mean BRICS will necessarily serve as an idea generator or a guiding beacon in this particular sphere. There are certain domains where this is feasible, with artificial intelligence representing one of such domains. Under Brazil’s leadership this year, BRICS achieved a milestone: alongside streamlined wordings incorporated into the principal summit’s declaration in Rio de Janeiro, BRICS adopted its first-ever standalone leaders’ declaration focusing on artificial intelligence. This is a significant step further. It also illustrates that BRICS might be undergoing an internal transformation,” the senior Russian diplomat pointed out.

In his view, “one of the conceptual and methodological strengths of BRICS lies in its principle of non-imposition: no country is compelled to adopt positions against its will.” “Membership in BRICS does not automatically entail endorsement of all collective positions – each nation retains its sovereign prerogative. Absolute respect for national priorities (and, consequently, the mandatory consensus-based adoption of any decision wording) may to some extent affect the pace of progress on certain issues. Yet, this very approach provides the strongest assurance of all members’ comfort and full engagement within the BRICS framework,” Ryabkov stressed.