Modi urges united action against terrorism, extremism at BRICS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday made a strong pitch for united action against terrorism and extremism by countries, including among BRICS, without discriminating between groups, countries, sponsors or targeted nations.

In a veiled message to China, which had blocked New Delhi's move for action in the UN against Pakistan over the release of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Modi said peace and stability were the bulwarks of progress and prosperity and it was the responsibility of countries to unitedly combat terrorism and extremism.

"We should unitedly combat terrorism and extremism, without any discrimination between groups, or countries, sponsors or targeted countries," Modi said at the BRICS plenary, which was attended by leaders of the other four partners -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and South Africa's Jacob Zuma.

China had last month blocked India's move to seek action against Pakistan in the UN for release of Lakhvi in violation of a UN resolution. China had cited insufficient information as ground for blocking the move.

Modi had raised the issue with Xi during their bilateral talks on Wednesday evening in Ufa.

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, briefing the media on the Modi-Xi talks, had said Modi raised India's concerns with the Chinese president.

He said Modi raised the issue with "clarity and directness" and it was felt that both sides should continue talking about it.

Addressing the BRICS Business Council earlier, Modi also took a swipe at "unilateral sanctions" which he said were hurting the global economy.

His comment was seen as a swipe at the West for its sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

Sujata Mehta, secretary (MER) in the external affairs ministry, said it was "India's position that sanctions of any nature should be approved by the UNSC, and those that are not are not sanctions that we adhere to or accept".