South Africa has assured its BRICS partners that it continues to view the bloc as a crucial strategic partnership through which a just, peaceful and more equitable world order can be pursued and realised.
South Africa, led by Minister in the Presidency responsible for State Security Agency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, today hosted a BRICS National Security Advisors meeting in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Delivering the opening remarks, Minister Ntshavheni told her BRICS counterparts that state and non-state actors are hard at work in certain parts of the globe using various role players to promote their agenda whilst undermining countries’ national security.
The Minister said the actors who are often prominent and influential are running covert intelligence networks to destabilise countries that do not share their world view.
“I want to assure our BRICS partners that South Africa continues to view BRICS as a key strategic partnership through which we can continue to pursue and realise a just, safer, peaceful and more equitable world order.
“As an African country, we firmly believe in the need to promote peace and sustainable development as well as deepened political, economic and social relations. South Africa remains deeply committed to multilateral diplomacy, in principle and in our demonstrable actions - particularly through our close collaboration in the bloc,” the Minister said.
Minister Ntshavheni urged the BRICS National Security Advisors to reassert its collective responsibility of providing new perspectives and solutions to the current international security order.
The Minister further highlighted that the meeting is taking place amidst the changing global geopolitical realities where multilateralism is increasingly coming under threat.
“We meet amidst changing global geopolitical realities, a period where multilateralism is increasingly under siege, when the integrity of international agreements can be hastily and expediently compromised, when more countries are succumbing to the temptation to adopt inward-looking positions at the expense of the global common good.
“The world has moved into a new and unsettling geopolitical phase where doubts and questions about the global order are rife,” she said.
Security issues
Minister Ntshavheni highlighted that countries continue to face a range of security issues that challenge the national security and state sovereignty.
Touching on the challenges, she said these include new cyber sources of hard and soft power, reconfigured trade and investment links, proxy conflicts, changing alliance dynamics, and potential flashpoints related to the global environment.
“The evolving world in which we live requires us to keep track of its multifaceted and dynamic changes, especially as it relates to security issues. BRICS is the platform that gives us the opportunity to address some of these questions and concerns referred to above,” she said.
Globally, the Minister said countries continue to face a number of emerging threats that include international terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism as well as drug trafficking, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms, money laundering, food security as well as the illicit economy.
“The global nature of these security issues has no respect for borders, which implies that they can be easily imported and negatively impact our countries’ stability and security. Nations cannot secure their national sovereignty unless they work together, when we are united, nothing is impossible,” she said.
Minister Ntshavheni concluded that the presence of each BRICS country is indicative of their collective commitment to cooperate in preventing, mitigating and combating the security threats they face.
“I am confident that our joint efforts can help alleviate these and should, therefore, be the basis for reforming the current global governance architecture which will ensure that our efforts are actionable and sustained,” she said. – SAnews.gov.za
