Modi's 'mothership of terror' remark at BRICS changes nothing for Pakistan

The Goa declaration didn’t refer to Pakistan-based terrorist groups or cross-border terrorism, reports Archis Mohan.

The Indian side, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his officials, pushed for the BRICS Summit Goa Declaration to specifically mention “cross-border terrorism” that India was faced with and also the names of Pakistani-based terror outfits. However, it failed to convince the other member states.

The Goa Declaration didn’t refer either to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is headed by Masood Azhar, the man India believes was behind the Pathankot terrorist attack, or the Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Saeed is considered to be the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

It did, however, name such groups as the Islamic State, Jabat-al-Nasra, the Syrian Islamist rebel group, and other UN designated groups. Amar Sinha, India’s chief negotiator in the BRICS, said that India couldn’t get a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terrorist outfits since it doesn’t concern all the BRICS countries.

Later, Islamabad criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement where he called Pakistan “the mothership of terrorism”. Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that Modi’s statement was misleading and a desperate attempt to hide India’s brutalities in Kashmir. “Pakistan joins all the members of BRICS and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) in condemning terrorism and reaffirms its full commitment to fight the menace of terrorism,” Aziz said.

Other BRICS leaders, particularly Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, focused their speeches on strengthening the BRICS economic integration. All other leaders sidestepped the Indian PM’s push for criticism of Pakistan as a sponsor of terrorism.

Putin called for more cooperation among BRICS members in the energy sector by instituting a BRICS Energy Agency.

Both India and China are key partners of Russia in the sector.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS dinner. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI Photo