MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The BRICS group should be more active in promoting a security agenda, Viktoria Panova, a vice rector at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University), said.

"It is important for <…> BRICS to come up with a more advanced security agenda. We still lack it," the expert said during a roundtable session on "BRICS and the Political Economy of the New World Order" at the international Valdai Discussion Club. "We are a de facto multifaceted organization based on three pillars: economic, political and humanitarian cooperation. But, nevertheless, if we do not do more to promote this part [i.e. address security issues], things will be more difficult for us."

She expressed the opinion that BRICS member states and like-minded countries could also promote their agenda through the G20 and thus influence other international institutions. The expert pointed out that the organization must offer an even higher level of interaction, which will allow developing countries to not feel threatened by pressure from the West, including in UN structures. "That is, [BRICS] should be the type of alternative that enables countries to work on their own development without fear and based on their own interests," Panova concluded.