Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni: 16th Brics Meeting of High-Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters

Speaking notes of Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Minister in The Presidency of South Africa at the 16th Brics Meeting of High-Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters - Session 1: Navigating Non-Traditional Security Challenges: Brics In An Uncertain World, 23 June 2023, Delhi, India

Excellencies,
Your Excellency, Mr Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor of India,

Thank you for the excellent arrangements made for this meeting and the hospitality extended to me and my delegation.

We are meeting when the global environment is changing at a pace and scale that we could not have imagined with dire consequences for the security of our people. Strategic rivalry has intensified, new theatres of conflict have emerged, supply chains destabilised, advances in technology bring added complexities in addition to significant opportunities, and the advances are faster than the ability develop Regulations. Yet the world system has not fully leveraged the advances in technology to successfully mitigate the severe impact of climate change.

As the BRICS countries, we have the responsibility to ensure that this unmediated change does not come at the expense of the most vulnerable. The most vulnerable are not only the severely affected by climate change, global pandemics and misuse of emerging

technologies to drive national instability. Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, recurrent outbreaks of Ebola in central Africa, and other infectious diseases on African continent have shown how quickly health emergencies erode stability, reverse years of development, and pose national and global security threats. That is why South Africa, under the leadership of President Ramaphosa as African Union Champion for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, has chosen to lead rather than retreat behind our borders. We are investing in continental disease surveillance and response systems, supporting the Africa Centre of Disease Control, expanding vaccine research and manufacturing in Africa, and opposing indiscriminate travel bans that punish transparency and delay effective action. South Africa is advocating for a stronger BRICS coordinated response to disease outbreaks in Africa.

Similarly, the globe is experiencing worsening climate change with more frequent droughts, floods and extreme storms that destroy crops, damage infrastructure, displace communities and loss of lives. These events do not only affect statistics; they affect real lives, they worsen inequality, and they create conditions that breed security threats. Under these conditions, the BRICS has a responsibility to coordinate an effective climate resilience. Climate security is directly linked to food security and global security. In South Africa, we are strengthening smallholder production, improving storage and distribution networks, using data more effectively to identify pockets of hunger, and working with our neighbours to build regional food systems that can withstand both climate change and market volatility. This is not charity; it is a deliberate investment in stability and resilience. We take this opportunity to remind BRICS members states that an unstable Africa due to climate change and other disruptions will worsen global instability.

South Africa approaches non-traditional security threats as interlinked and mutually reinforcing. Our just transition agenda reflects the same logic. We are committed to lowering emissions, protecting biodiversity and modernising our economy, while managing the risks to workers and communities who depend on high-carbon sectors. We are clear that a transition which deepens poverty or widens inequality will undermine national security, whereas a transition that is planned, financed and rooted in social dialogue can expand opportunity and strengthen our democracy.

Excellencies,

In this unsettled world, BRICS is an important platform for South Africa. It brings together major producers of food and energy, key markets, and countries that hold significant technological and environmental assets. We see BRICS as an instrument to drive reform of global governance, to amplify the voice of the Global South, and to deliver practical

cooperation that improves the lives of our people. We believe that BRICS can add value through the mobilisation of affordable finance for climate-related infrastructure and adaptation, building regional value chains in critical minerals and green technologies, enhancing pandemic surveillance and response, and promoting climate-smart agriculture and balanced trade in food and inputs. For South Africa it is essential that these initiatives support African priorities, reinforce the African Continental Free Trade Area, and advance Agenda 2063's vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent with silenced guns. For South Africa, the real danger is in a disorderly transition in which power is used selectively, international law is applied inconsistently, and shared threats are met with fragmented responses. In such a context, the countries and regions with the least historical responsibility for global crises often carry the heaviest burden, and that includes many in the African continent.

Your Excellencies

Security is not only about the strength of our armed forces; it is about whether people can live free from fear of crime, free from fear of instability, free of hunger, free of disease, and free from fear of the abuse of information through the use of emerging technologies. Security is about whether institutions such as the BRICS can be trusted to coordinate a system that drives economic inclusion for citizens of its members states but also countries of the global South in particular the developing and under-developed countries as the BRICS reinforce a functional global multilateral system. South Africa continues to advocate for the reforms of the global multilateral system in particular the UN Security Council and World Trade Organisation to ensure representation of the African continent and African interests with those of other regions.

Excellencies,

Through BRICS and our wider partnerships, South Africa will continue to argue that climate justice, food security, health equity, inclusive economic prosperity and information integrity are not secondary issues but core elements of national and global security. We will continue to mobilise the BRICS to support This is the basis on continue to work within the BRICS to mobilise for building a more stable, just and peaceful world. Attainment of this goal is directly linked to the goal of a prosperous and peaceful Africa. The prospects of a prosperous Africa are very high if the BRICS can reinforce the implementation of the critical minerals strategy of Africa, as Africa accounts for the largest reserves of critical and rare earth minerals that the cornerstone of the green and digital economies. The BRICS must support initiatives for beneficiating critical minerals closest to source so that Africa does not remain exporters of rock and dust but finished products for green and digital technologies.

South Africa remains committed to the BRICS because we believe it's a platform through which we can mobilise for the building of bridges, of engagement platforms, and insist on a collective approach to the resolution of challenges of the Global South in a more coordinated manner that still requires strengthening for best interests of our collective future.

I thank you.

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