BRICS countries stand for developing joint cyber security agreement - Lavrov

PRETORIA, June 4. /TASS/. BRICS member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) stand for developing a five-party agreement on strengthening security in the area of information and communication technologies, Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov said following a BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday. "We exchanged views on cooperation in the area of cyber security and agreed that there is a need to strengthen international law in this field, particularly by developing a five-party agreement on the matter," he said. According to the Russian foreign minister, the meeting’s participants paid special attention "to ways of resolving acute international conflicts, stepping up joint efforts to counter global threats, first and foremost, the threat of international terrorism." "In this regard, we welcomed the outcome of the April meeting of the BRICS working group on counter-terrorism, held in South Africa’s White River," Lavrov said, adding that "the meeting adopted Russia-drafted regulations for this important five-party mechanism." "We seek to further strengthen BRICS as an important factor in a new multilateral world order, more fair and democratic, which would play a constructive role in ensuring security and stability in our troubled world," Lavrov noted. "We have discussed ways to continue our cooperation within the United Nations, the G20, the World Trade Organization and other international organizations. We reaffirmed out commitment to the principle of indivisible security, the use of collective methods for resolving disputes by political and diplomatic means based on international law and the central role of the UN. We share a single position on opposing unilateral approaches and attempts to revise international agreements and decisions made by the UN Security Council on issues concerning the interests of all countries," the Russian foreign minister stressed. Lavrov also expressed support for the initiatives South Africa was planning to present at the BRICS summit set to be held in late July, which particularly refer to ways of taking advantage from the fourth digital revolution in the interests of the five member states, boosting peacemaking cooperation within the UN and mutual steps to advance the tourism industry. According to the Russian top diplomat, discussions of economic issues had also proved useful, which particularly concerned the implementation of the economic partnership strategy, adopting a platform for energy research and establishing a BRICS women’s business alliance. Read more