13th BRICS meeting strengthens common security

By Hannan Hussain

Top national security representatives and senior officials from BRICS countries are in Johannesburg for the 13th Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security. The meeting serves as an important dialogue to coordinate positions and future expectations on political and security cooperation, weigh in on major hotspot issues, and accelerate preparations for next month's BRICS Summit in South Africa. Engaging on the sidelines, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, expressing China's intent to invest in a multipolar world and join forces to promote BRICS cooperation.

Since its initiation in 2009, the BRICS meeting has been held 12 times. The meeting has assumed considerable strategic significance since, serving as a platform for senior national security diplomats to coordinate stances on hotspot issues, generate meaningful propositions for regional security, and forge consensus on traditional and non-traditional threats. The current meeting itself arrives at a time of sustained political uncertainty. The backdrop of the Ukraine-Russia conflict is a proof point: it illustrates BRICS's collective stakes in stemming future unrest, promoting a negotiated settlement, and ensuring that senior representatives partner together to support constructive solutions and complementary strategies.

This year's meeting in Johannesburg is also noticeable for its wide-ranging governance agenda and BRICS's growing traction among countries across regions. Heightened prospects of an expanded grouping make BRICS unique in its support for deepening political trust and advancing the outcomes of key working groups on counter-terrorism and cybersecurity issues. The grouping's desire to further broaden its representation of the Global South is also a positive step to help countries adapt to new national security threats and challenges.

Wang Yi (L), director of the Office of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, meets with South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 24, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

To that end, the inclusion of senior national security officials from other countries such as Iran is substantive evidence of operating in conjunction on core global security issues. China's stated intent to weigh in on issues of mutual interest with BRICS partners reflects positively on the lead-up to the 2023 BRICS Summit.

Accounting for 42 percent of the world's population, the grouping is also noteworthy for its approach to peacebuilding and its progress on salient national security themes. Consider cyber security: this week's in-depth dialogue between BRICS states and the "Friends of BRICS" gave way to important observations that can strengthen collective cyber defenses to the benefit of national security. In Wang's telling, countries ought to benefit from building a fair and reasonable cyberspace that is jointly maintained by all countries, as well as an open, inclusive, safe, stable, and vibrant cyberspace.

Finally, expect the 13th BRICS national security advisers meeting to build on the political consensus reached during last year's meeting, and further the interests of the Global South. Hosted by Beijing, the last Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security underlined adaptability in the face of rising global turbulence, strengthening the grouping's defense of developing world priorities and extending good governance to new territories.

This year's meeting stands to dial-up political trust between a fast-expanding BRICS and the Global South, as over 40 nations express their interest in joining the grouping and complimenting its goals. To its credit, BRICS brings a track record of prioritizing complex security issues of concern to the Global South and promoting dialogue and diplomacy in the face of escalators measures such as sanctions and military hegemony.

Thus, BRICS's expansion runs high on the agenda along with greater prospects of coordination on global security issues. Together, the meeting promises important legwork in the lead-up to the highly anticipated BRICS Summit, with concrete contributions to inform global peace.

Hannan Hussain, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a foreign affairs commentator, author, and assistant research associate at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.