- National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Monday attended the ‘Friends of BRICS’ meeting in the South African capital of Johannesburg.
- NSA Ajit Doval highlighted the need for collective efforts to deal with challenges emerging from cybersecurity.
- “The younger population was particularly vulnerable to the spread of extremist ideologies via social media sites as they are technology savvy and have impressionable minds,” he noted.
- Doval held several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS and Friends of BRICS countries.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Monday attended the ‘Friends of BRICS’ meeting in the South African capital of Johannesburg. In the meeting, the issue of cybersecurity was discussed at length. In addition to BRICS, the following Friends of BRICS countries – Belarus, Burundi, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Cuba – also participated in the discussions.
Doval highlighted the need for collective efforts to deal with challenges emerging from cybersecurity. “The Global South in particular needs to overcome limitations of resources. In this regard, India will always remain at the forefront and work closely with the Global South,” he said.
Doval also emphasized that the gravity of cyber risks will increase exponentially with the advent of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and the Internet of Things. He spoke about the connection between cyber criminals and terrorists, including the use of cyberspace for financing, money laundering, radicalizing, lone wolf attacks, recruitment, and secured communications.
“The younger population was particularly vulnerable to the spread of extremist ideologies via social media sites as they are technology savvy and have impressionable minds,” he noted.
Doval also held several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS and Friends of BRICS countries.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, among others at the side-lines of the BRICS NSA meeting in Johannesburg.
(With inputs from agencies)
