BRICS foreign ministers discuss influence of COVID-19 crisis on international matters: FM Lavrov

BRICS foreign ministers discussed all the relevant issues of international security and the influence of the COVID-19 crisis on international matters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

In a press conference following the BRICS foreign ministers meeting, Lavrov said the foreign ministers also discussed joint counter-terrorism actions.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired the standalone meeting through video conferencing. It was convened by India as the current BRICS Chair.

The meeting was attended by Brazil Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.

"We have discussed all the relevant issues of international security. We have discussed the influence of the COVID-19 crisis on international matters. We focused a lot on strategic partnership within BRICS along three lines--- political economic and humanitarian," he said.

"We have had a lengthy discussion and focused discussion that has shown we have aligned position on many issues. We have focussed a lot on conflict zones We have reaffirmed that we are intent on all intelligence and regional issues through international diplomacy with the primary role of the UN. We have also discussed joint counter-terrorism actions," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )