Foreign Ministers Jaishankar, Wang Yi to meet next week in Moscow

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended a webinar of the BRICS Foreign Ministers on Friday but did not opt for direct talks on the net.

Much like Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who had an in-person meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Moscow, Jaishankar will meet Wang next week when he travels to Russia to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet, where Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also be a participant.

At the virtual BRICS meeting, Jaishankar said the Foreign Ministers positively assessed the progress made since Russia took over the chair in counter-terrorism, economic cooperation, ICTs and people-to-people contacts. They also exchanged views on the international situation and regional hotspots including Afghanistan and West Asia.

Jaishankar also urged full support of BRICS in reforming UNSC as an “exercise in our collective faith in meaningful multilateralism”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the BRICS and all its member countries were always open to cooperate with partners who are ready to work constructively in order to become a “centre of attraction” for other actors in the international arena.

Chaired by Russia, the annual meeting of foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) also focused on the development of a unified response to the severe global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.