&w=3840&q=100)
Brics condemns Pahalgam attack; calls out double standards against terror
The top leaders of Brics nations articulated their firm resolve to combat terrorism, including cross-border movement of terrorists and terror financing, on the first day of the grouping's two-day summit in this seaside Brazilian city.
In an apparent reference to Washington's reciprocal tariffs, the leaders also criticised the "indiscriminate rising of tariffs", holding that such measures threaten to undermine global trade.
The Brics leaders unveiled the "Rio de Janeiro Declaration" that featured the bloc's position on a number of pressing global challenges, including terrorism, the situation in West Asia, trade and tariff, and reform of global institutions such as the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods Institutions.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, during which 26 people were killed and many more injured. We reaffirm our commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including the cross-border movement of terrorists, terrorism financing and safe havens," the leaders said in the declaration.
"We urge to ensure zero tolerance for terrorism and reject double standards in countering terrorism," the Brics declaration said.
"We emphasise the primary responsibility of states in combating terrorism and that global efforts to prevent and counter terrorist threats must fully comply with their obligations under international law," it said.
The Brics resolved to further deepen counter-terrorism cooperation and called for concerted actions against all UN designated terrorists and terrorist entities.
The grouping also called for an expeditious finalisation and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN framework.
The declaration condemned all acts of terrorism as "criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation".
The Brics said it is committed to combating illicit financial flows, including money laundering and financing of terrorism, extremism and proliferation, and other forms of transnational organised crime, including the use of new technologies and cryptocurrencies for terrorist purposes.
It also expressed concern over ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world and the current state of "polarisation and fragmentation" in the international order.
The grouping specifically condemned recent military strikes against Iran.
"We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since June 13, which constitute a violation of international law and the Charter of the UN," it said in the declaration.
"We further express serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities under full safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," it added.
The Brics' declaration said the multilateral trading system is at a crossroads.
"The proliferation of trade-restrictive actions, whether in the form of indiscriminate rising of tariffs and nontariff measures...threatens to further reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities," it said.
The grouping voiced serious concerns about the rise of "unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures" which it said distorts trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules.
"In this context, we reiterate our support for the rules-based, open, transparent, fair, inclusive, equitable, non-discriminatory, consensus-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core, with special and differential treatment for its developing members," the declaration said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin skipped the summit. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also didn't attend the gathering.
The Brics has emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.
Brics, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
41 minutes ago
- NDTV
As Gaza Starves, A Look At Historic Use Of Famine As Weapon of War
There is increasing evidence that "widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease" are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths" in Gaza, a group of United Nations and aid organizations have repeatedly warned. A July 29, 2025, alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative for improving food security and nutrition, reported that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," as access to food and other essential items is dropping to an "unprecedented level." More than 500,000 Palestinians, one-fourth of Gaza's population, are experiencing famine, the U.N. stated. And all 320,000 children under age 5 are "at risk of acute malnutrition, with serious lifelong physical and mental health consequences." U.N. experts have accused Israel of using starvation "as a savage weapon of war and constitutes crime under international law." They are calling on Israel to urgently "restore the UN humanitarian system in Gaza." Israel is not the only government in history to cut off access to food and water as a tool of war. As an Indigenous scholar who studies Indigenous history, I know that countries - including the United States and Canada - have used starvation to conquer Indigenous peoples and acquire their land. As a descendant of ancestors who endured forced starvation by the U.S. government, I also know of its enduring consequences. Dismantling Indigenous food systems From the founding of the U.S. and Canada through the 20th century, settler colonizers often tried to destroy Indigenous communities' access to food, whether it was their farms and livestock or their ability to access land with wild animals - with the ultimate aim of forcing them off the land. In 1791, President George Washington ordered Secretary of War Henry Knox to destroy farms and livestock of the Wea Tribe that lived along the Ohio River valley - a fertile area with a long history of growing corn, beans, squash and other fruits and vegetables. Knox burned down their "corn fields, uprooted vegetable gardens, chopped down apple orchards, reduced every house to ash, [and] killed the Indians who attempted to escape," historian Susan Sleeper-Smith noted in her 2018 book, "Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest." Women and children were taken hostage. The goal was to destroy villages and farms so that Indigenous people would leave and not return. Seventy-two years later, General Kit Carson conducted a scorched-earth campaign to remove the Navajo from what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Similar to Knox, he destroyed their villages, crops and water supply, killed their livestock and chopped down over 4,000 peach trees. The U.S. military forced over 10,000 Navajo to leave their homeland. Indigenous famine By the late 19th century, numerous famines struck Indigenous communities in both the U.S. and Canada due to the "targeted, swift, wholesale destruction" of bison by settlers, according to historian Dan Flores; this, too, was done in an effort to acquire more Indigenous land. One U.S. military colonel stated at the time: "Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone." There were an estimated 60 million bison before U.S. and Canadian settlement; by the 1890s, there were fewer than 1,000. Indigenous communities on the northern Great Plains in both the U.S. and Canada, who believed bison were a sacred animal and who relied on them for food, clothing and other daily needs, now had nothing to eat. Historian James Daschuk revealed in his 2013 book, "Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life," that between 1878 to 1880, Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald did little to stop a multiyear famine on the Canadian Plains, in what is now Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Macdonald did not hide his intentions. He and his government, he said, were "doing all we can, by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation." Indigenous peoples on the Canadian Plains were forced to eat their dogs, horses, the carcasses of poisoned wolves and even their own moccasins. All the Indigenous peoples in the region - an estimated 26,500 people - suffered from the famine. Hundreds died from starvation and disease. Malcolm C. Cameron, a House of Commons member at the time, accused his government of using "a policy of submission shaped by a policy of starvation" against Indigenous peoples. His denunciation did little to change their policy. What my great-grandparents experienced Many Indigenous peoples' families in the U.S. and Canada have stories of surviving forced starvation by the government. Mine does, too. In the winter of 1883-1884, my grandmother and grandfather's parents experienced what is remembered as the "starvation winter" on the Blackfeet reservation in what is now Montana. Similar to what happened in Canada, the near extinction of bison by American settlers led to a famine on the Blackfeet reservation. In an effort to slow the famine, Blackfeet leaders purchased food with their own money, but the U.S. government supply system delayed its arrival, creating a dire situation. Blackfeet leaders documented 600 deaths by starvation that one winter, while the U.S. government documented half that amount. As historian John Ewers noted, the nearby "well-fed settlers" did nothing and did not offer "any effective aid to the Blackfeet." My family survived because a few men and women within our family were able to travel far off the reservation by horseback to hunt and harvest Native foods. I was told the story of the "starvation winter" my entire life, as were most Blackfeet. And I now share these stories with my own children. Weapon of war Thousands of children in Gaza are malnourished and dying of hunger-related causes. Due to mounting international pressure, Israel is pausing its attacks in some parts of Gaza for a few hours each day to allow for some aid, but experts have noted it is not enough. "We're talking about 2 million people. It's not 100 trucks or a pausing or a few hours of calm that is going to meet the needs of a population that has been starved for months," Oxfam official Bushra Khalidi told The New York Times. "This is no longer a looming hunger crisis - this is starvation, pure and simple," Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Aug. 10, 2025. Many might assume that the use of starvation as a weapon of war happened only in the past. Yet, in places like Gaza, it is happening now. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Vaishnaw Shares Video Glimpse of India's First Hydrogen Train, A Milestone Moment
Jeffrey Sachs DESTROYS Trump's 'Delusion' Of 'Breaking BRICS', China Tariffs, Putin-Trump Meet In this explosive conversation with The Times of India's Aditi Prasad, economist and public policy expert Jeffrey Sachs pulls no punches on Donald Trump's trade wars, BRICS unity, and global power shifts. From calling Trump's tariff strategy 'delusional' to explaining how it has inadvertently strengthened BRICS, Sachs lays out why China, Brazil, India, and Russia have all pushed back harder than the EU or Japan — and why America can no longer 'run the show' in world affairs. He also dissects Trump's proposed meeting with Russia's Putin in Alaska deal, arguing that Ukraine and Europe are mere bystanders in what is essentially a U.S.–Russia war, propped up by American money, weapons, and NATO muscle. Sachs also accuses the U.S. and Israel of committing genocide in Palestine and bluntly rejects the idea of awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to anyone complicit in such the full, unfiltered conversation here. 464 views | 1 hour ago
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
Foreign ministers of 25 countries urge Israel to let aid into Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens
'The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes. Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation. Humanitarian space must be protected, and aid should never be politicised,' the foreign ministers said in a joint statement Palestinians collect humanitarian aid packages from the United Arab Emirates after they were airdropped into Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza Strip, on Saturday. AP File The foreign ministers of 25 countries, including the UK, France, Australia, Spain, Japan, and several European Union representatives, have warned that humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached 'unimaginable levels,' and called on the Israeli government to allow essential humanitarian actors to operate in Gaza. 'The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes. Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation. Humanitarian space must be protected, and aid should never be politicised,' The Guardian quoted the foreign ministers as saying in a joint statement. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'However, due to restrictive new registration requirements, essential international NGOs may be forced to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) imminently which would worsen the humanitarian situation still further,' the statement added. The group of countries urged Israel to authorise international NGO aid shipments, unblock humanitarian actors, and allow full access to the region for the UN and other partners. 'We call on the government of Israel to provide authorisation for all international NGO aid shipments and to unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating. Immediate, permanent and concrete steps must be taken to facilitate safe, large-scale access for the UN, international NGOs and humanitarian partners. All crossings and routes must be used to allow a flood of aid into Gaza, including food, nutrition supplies, shelter, fuel, clean water, medicine and medical equipment,' the statement further said. The joint statement also condemned the use of lethal force at aid distribution sites and demanded protection for civilians, aid workers, and medical staff. The ministers expressed support for diplomatic efforts by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt to broker a ceasefire. 'We are grateful to the US, Qatar and Egypt for their efforts in pushing for a ceasefire and pursuing peace. We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered,' the statement added. Signatories include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and senior representatives from the European Union. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD More than 60,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war so far, according to Palestinian authorities, with a significant number of the victims reported to be women and children. Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 217 people — including 100 children — have died from starvation amid severe shortages of food and humanitarian aid. While Israel disputes these figures, it has not released alternative data. The United Nations has said the reported toll is largely credible and may even understate the true scale of the devastation. The war was triggered by a Hamas-led cross-border assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others, according to Israeli officials. With inputs from agencies
