NSA Ajit Doval attending the virtual meeting of the NSAs of the BRICS countries on Wednesday.

New Delhi: Terrorism has to be fought and fought without reservation, Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor, said at the BRICS meeting today. Speaking with other NSAs from Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa during a virtual meeting, he welcomed the fact that the BRICS countries were involved in counterterrorism through the working group. Terrorists had to be fought in different ways, he said. And one way was to ensure that terrorists did not use communication technologies to spread messages of hate. Cyber security was also imperative in the fight against terrorism.

Doval also mentioned the need to reform the multilateral system urgently: the reform of the United Nations Security Council is a long way of and the one country opposing India’s efforts to be a permanent member is China. Without reform, he pointed out, it would be difficult to address global issues with credibility, equity and accountability.

Covid has clearly changed the world and countries have to work together to fight pandemics, not just now, but in the future. Similar cooperation between countries is necessary to fight climate change. Again, there are serious differences between China and the West about climate change and the Chinese leaders didn’t even attend the last COP summit.

Other areas of cooperation Include working together on issues related to outer space and maritime security where India, as a member of the Quad has been calling for a free and open Indo-Pacific, a clear reference to China’s tough posturing in the area. Doval also mentioned that resilient and trusted supply chains were necessary, a reference to the current economic logjams because of post Covid problems and war in the Ukraine.

A BRICS summit is due later this month, with China as hosts. That too is likely to be virtual.