Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal met on the sidelines of the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit in Goa, marking the first such trilateral meeting between leaders of the three countries.
The three leaders discussed issues of common interests during the 20-minute meeting, according to Prakash Dahal, son of the Nepalese PM.
During the talks, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also known as Prachanda, recalled how he had emphasized on the need of a strategic under standing between Nepal, India and China during his earlier term as the prime minister of Nepal, people aware of development said.
“Nepal lies in between two giant neighbours--India and China. We wish to reap benefits of this geographical speciality by working as a dynamic bridge between the two countries,“ Prachanda is understood to have said at Sunday's meeting. Modi and Xi are learnt to have welcomed the proposal.
Prachanda also said Nepal wants to establish balanced, friendly and strategic relationships with both the neighbours for itself to reach its development goal.
The theme was terrorism all the way at the Brics summit meeting as PM Narendra Modi used the forum to keep up his attack on Pakistan, describing it as the “mothership“ of terrorism that posed a direct threat to the “eco prosperity“ of the region.
With India labelling Pakistan a terrorist state in the wake of the attack on the Army camp at Uri, Modi has used multilateral forums like the G-20 meeting at Hangzhou and the ASEAN conclave in Laos to target Pakistan's support for terrorism. “Tragically , its (terrorism) mother ship is a country in India's neighbourhood,“ Modi said in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan's long-standing ally, at a restricted BRICS meeting. Like at Hangzhou and Laos, where he accused “one country“ of spreading terrorism, PM Modi stopped just short of directly naming Pakistan.
“We agreed that those who nurture, shelter, support and sponsor forces of violence and terror are as much a threat to us as the terrorists themselves,“ Modi said, as he insisted there was unanimity within BRICS on the issue of terrorism. But the Chinese articulation was more muted.
Speaking during the plenary session, Xi said it was imperative to step up coordination on major international issues, “regional hot spots“ and find a political solution to these. Interestingly , Chinese reports on Modi-Xi meeting did not contain any reference to counter-terrorism.
Modi's words of admonition spilled over to the BRICS outreach with BIMSTEC countries in the evening when he said that in south Asia and BIMSTEC, all nations barring one were motivated to pursue a path of peace, development and economic prosperity for their people. BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, brings together Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
While the Goa Declaration issued after the BRICS summit did not mention cross-border terrorism mainly due to China's resistance, it contained some significant differences from previous outcome documents. It noted the responsibility of all states to prevent terrorist activities in their territories. And importantly , in the context of India's surgical strikes across the Line of Control, it listed dismantling of terrorist bases among measures needed for a comprehensive approach to fighting terrorism. The document also noted that “political“ causes were not acceptable reasons to condone terror.
MEA secretary (economic relations) Amar Sinha, who coordinates diplomacy relating to BRICS, said India was satisfied with the outcome document even though the group couldn't arrive at a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. In the context of international issues like climate change, terrorism and natural disasters, Xi called for a multi-pronged approach which sought to address “both symptoms and root causes“. Sinha, however, said he did not believe Xi was referring to root causes of terrorism.
As the host, Modi had the last word when he said in his closing remarks that combating terrorism, including cross-border terrorism and its supporters, would be a key BRICS priority .
