NSA highlights the need for collective efforts to deal with challenges emerging from cybersecurity at ‘Friends of BRICS’ meeting in Johannesburg…reports Asian Lite News
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Monday attended the ‘Friends of BRICS’ meeting in the South African capital of Johannesburg. In the meeting, the issue of cybersecurity was discussed at length. In addition to BRICS, the following Friends of BRICS countries – Belarus, Burundi, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Cuba – also participated in the discussions.
Doval highlighted the need for collective efforts to deal with challenges emerging from cybersecurity. “The Global South in particular needs to overcome limitations of resources. In this regard, India will always remain at the forefront and work closely with the Global South,” he said.
Doval also emphasised that the gravity of cyber risks will increase exponentially with the advent of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data and Internet of Things.
He spoke about the connection between cyber criminals and terrorists, including the use of cyber space for financing, money laundering, radicalizing, lone wolf attacks, recruitment and secured communications.
“The younger population was particularly vulnerable to the spread of extremist ideologies via social media sites as they are technology savvy and have impressionable minds,” he noted.
Doval also held several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS and Friends of BRICS countries.
He said the Global South in particular needed to overcome limitations of resources. In this endeavour, India will always remain at the forefront, working closely with the Global South, Doval said, according to sources.
NSA meets Patrushev, Yi at Johannesburg
He made it clear that the gravity of cyber risks will increase exponentially with the advent of disruptive technologies such as AI, Big Data and Internet of Things and that the techno savvy young generation remains particularly susceptible to spread of extremist ideologies through use of social media sites.
Russia, on the other hand, stated that countries are more interested in deepening cooperation with the powerful five-member BRICS grouping as it has become an “increasingly attractive” format for the Global South and East, having no confrontational or hidden agenda.
“A detailed exchange of views also took place on issues of international information security as a challenge to the countries of the developing world. In particular, it was proposed to continue work on the formation of a universal international legal regime in the digital environment, based on the principles of sovereign equality of states and non-interference in internal affairs,” said a statement from Patrushev’s office in Moscow.
It added that the intention to move towards a multipolar system based on the principles of sovereign equality, trust and indivisibility of security, free and original development of all countries and peoples was confirmed at Monday’s meeting.
“The importance was noted of continuing a confidential dialogue, taking into account the interest of all participants in the world community in solving problems of global security. Attention is drawn to the fact that BRICS is becoming an increasingly attractive format for many states of the Global South and East, as it does not have any confrontational or hidden agenda,” stated the Russian Security Council.
NSA Doval is also scheduled to hold several important bilateral meetings during his visit to South Africa. The BRICS brings together some 3.2 billion people and is among the largest bloc of countries in terms of population.
The 15th BRICS Summit, scheduled to be held in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24, will be the first in-person gathering of BRICS leaders in three years where PM Narendra Modi will further carry forward his vision of utilising India’s current G20 presidency to give resonance to the voice of the Global South and the importance of South-South Cooperation to collectively shape the global agenda.
Russia offers BRICS partners a module on its space station
Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s space agency on Monday suggested Moscow’s partners in the BRICS group – Brazil, India, China and South Africa – could build a module for its planned orbital station, the Interfax news agency reported.
Reporting from a BRICS meeting on space cooperation in Hermanus, South Africa, Interfax said it was “assumed” that the first module of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) would be launched in 2027, with construction completed by 2032.
By then, the International Space Station – one of the last forums of cooperation between Washington and Moscow as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent relations to a post-Cold War low – is likely to have been decommissioned.
“I would like to invite BRICS partners to … create a fully-fledged module that, being part of the ROS, would allow the BRICS countries to use the possibilities of low-Earth orbit to implement their national space programmes,” Interfax quoted Roscosmos Director-General Yuri Borisov as telling the meeting.
Roskosmos said last August that its new space station would consist of six modules and a service platform, to accommodate up to four cosmonauts, and be built in two phases. It gave no dates.
In September, Borisov said the station would orbit Earth around the poles, enabling it to look down on far more of Russia’s vast territory and gather new data on cosmic radiation.
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