“We support dialogue and diplomacy, not war. And, just as we together defeated a challenge like COVID, in the same way, we are fully capable of creating new opportunities for a safe, strong and prosperous future for the future generation…Similarly, we should work for global regulations for cyber security, safe and secure AI,” he said at the event.

He said the BRICS countries should strongly deal with terrorism and terror financing.

“We all have to be united and cooperate strongly to deal with terrorism and terror financing. There is no place for double standards on such a serious issue. We should take active steps to prevent radicalization among the youth of our countries. We have to work together on the pending issue of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN,” he added.

He said the BRICS countries must remain people-centric at a time when the world is facing several challenges.

“Our meeting is taking place at a time when the world is surrounded by many challenges like wars, conflicts, economic uncertainty, climate change, terrorism. There is talk of the North-South and East-West divide in the world…And, in the age of technology, new challenges like cyber security, and deepfake disinformation have emerged. In such a situation, there are many expectations from BRICS. I believe that as a diverse and inclusive platform, BRICS can play a positive role in all issues. In this context, our approach should remain people-centric. We should give the message to the world that BRICS is not a divisive but a public interest group,” he said.

“India is ready to welcome new countries as BRICS partner countries. All decisions in this regard should be made unanimously and the views of the founding members of BRICS should be respected. The guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures that we adopted at the Johannesburg Summit should be followed by all member and partner countries,” he added.

The prime minister also pitched for reform of the UN Security Council and other global bodies.

“We must move forward in a time-bound manner on reforms in global institutions such as the UN Security Council, Multilateral development banks, and the WTO,” he said.

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“As we take our efforts forward in BRICS, we must be careful to ensure that this organisation does not acquire the image of one that is trying to replace global institutions, instead of being perceived as one that wishes to reform them,” he said.

With inputs from PTI, ANI