BRICS coordinating joint stance on Middle East events - Russian diplomat

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are coordinating a collective position on the Middle East developments, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Friday. "I’m sure that BRICS has a huge potential for work in all the regions that have problems," Ryabkov said, answering a question on the goals of the meetings of BRICS deputy foreign ministers in Moscow on the Middle East issue. "The Middle East region is on fire. Of course, we cannot stay on the sidelines of this process as a cooperation format," Ryabkov said, adding that BRICS was "coordinating a collective stance on what is happening there." Speaking on practical steps, Ryabkov said many BRICS countries have individually participated in solving the problems of the Middle East region, including the joint Russian-Chinese naval escort of operation on Syria’s chemical weapons disarmament last year. "There are many other similar examples," the diplomat reminded. "The next step will be collective engagement of BRICS as a structure in the work on these directions," he said. "This is one of the most important elements of the Russian presidency," he said. The BRICS agenda under the Russian presidency includes plans to strengthen strategic stability and international information security, reinforce the non-proliferation regime, and combat international terrorism. Russia chairs BRICS from April 1, 2015 until February 15, 2016. Read more