Kabul welcomes, Islamabad rejects BRICS declaration

KABUL posed a regional security concern.

The Afghan government hoped for a collective action against terrorism following the BRICS leaders meeting in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen and welcomed the five BRICS emerging markets for urging peace in Afghanistan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the annual summit of the grouping that adopted the Xiamen Declaration and the meeting agreed to strengthen cooperation against a range of terror groups.

BRICS powers for the first time named some Pakistan-based groups that they said posed threat to the security situation in the region.

"We express concern on the security situation in the region and violence caused by the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Hizbut Tahrir," it added.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa make up the BRICS grouping founded in 2010. The group held its ninth meeting in China and deplored "all terrorist attacks worldwide.”

In their joint declaration, the grouping condemned terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations wherever committed and by whomsoever and stress that there can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism".

They supported an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and national reconciliation and ongoing international efforts, including the Moscow Format of consultations on  Afghanistan and “Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process”, as well as multimodal connectivity projects to promote peace and stability.

Shah Hussain Murtazavi, acting spokesman for the president, talking about the BRICS statement, said: “We welcome this statement and we wish this right understanding will lead to actions against countries that support terrorism.”

He said the Afghan government had repeatedly announced that terrorism was a threat to the humanity and security of the region.

“We expect the regional and other countries would take a collective action against threats to humanity and states from terrorism with right understanding,” Murtazavi said.

However, Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the statement by the BRICS powers that militant groups in the country posed a regional security concern.

“We reject this thing categorically, no terrorist organization has any complete safe havens,” Pakistan defence minister Khurram Dastagir Khan told a private news channel.

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