**Top national security officials from South Africa, China, Russia, India, and Brazil are poised to further their joint “BRICS agenda and collaboration on security-related concerns,” according to Minister In Presidency responsible for State Security Agency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.
The South African official welcomed her counterparts on Tuesday (July 25) in Sandton, Johannesburg, for the BRICS 13th National Security Advisors Conference.
The officials discussed global security issues impacting their respective areas, as well as economic collaboration.
“BRICS countries have already become a very important platform for emerging markets and developing countries to seek strength through unity,” says China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, who it was announced Tuesday (Jul.25) will replace Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
“Our five countries have come from afar to gather here, to follow the strategic guidance of the five leaders, and discuss major issues related to our national security and international security, we are here to compare notes, to pour consensus , to discuss solutions and to make political preparations for the BRICS Summit next month,” the veteran diplomat said.
“Our meeting is very important and necessary. We need to bear in mind the historical path BRICS has traversed.”
The Meeting of National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security is a platform for Brics countries to carry out political and security cooperation.
On Monday, Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni hosted a Friends of BRICS national security advisors meeting with her BRICS Security counterparts.
The Friends of BRICS countries in attendance were Belarus, Burundi, Cuba, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The friends of BRICS are a group of countries who have expressed an interest in joining BRICS, those chairing prominent institutions of the Global South and those invited as per the Chair’s prerogative.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni further said: “We must reinforce the way we do things through both the BRICS and the multi-lateral system of the United Nations, as we deal with challenges such as counter-terrorism, trans-national crimes and cybersecurity.”
This comes ahead of the 15th BRICS Summit that will take place in Johannesburg in August.
