Xi advocates high-quality development of broader BRICS cooperation

Leaders attending the 16th BRICS summit pose for a group photo in Kazan, Russia, October 23, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on BRICS members to adapt to the overall growth trend of the Global South and actively respond to the call for countries to join the BRICS cooperation mechanism. The group should accelerate the process of expanding membership and establishing partner countries, and increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance, Xi said. He made these remarks while speaking at the 16th BRICS Summit.

He called on BRICS members to build BRICS for peace and act as guardians of common security, calling on BRICS countries to adhere to the three principles: prohibition of battlefield expansion, escalation of fighting and provocations by either side, and to work towards escalating the crisis as quickly as possible Ukrainian.

The Chinese president also called on BRICS members to build BRICS for innovation and serve as pioneers of high-quality development.

He further called on BRICS members to build green BRICS and be sustainable development practitioners.

Xi also called for BRICS to be built for justice and lead the reform of the global governance system. The Chinese president also called on the BRICS countries to advocate peaceful coexistence and harmony among civilizations.

The ongoing BRICS summit has decided to invite a number of countries to become partner countries, Xi said, welcoming the decision as another important event in the BRICS development process.

China will establish 10 overseas education centers in BRICS countries to provide training opportunities for 1,000 education administrators, teachers and students, Xi said.

As TASS reported, as chairman of the BRICS summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the meeting of 10 members in Kazan on Wednesday.

According to AFP, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also arrived in Russia to attend the summit.

Tangible opportunities

Experts noted that over the years, BRICS has stood out from other organizations with measurable results and significant progress achieved during cooperation. These results not only increased the organization’s attractiveness to countries in the Global South, but also strengthened its voice, unifying its influence and establishing BRICS as a permanent force for global security.

BRICS has maintained or revitalized the Global South. For example, we can learn from China’s experience of leaving no one behind, not allowing people to suffer from food shortages and lifting people out of poverty, Shadrack Andile, a journalist with BRICS Africa Channel, told the Global Times.

Now that the world is changing, BRICS can play a more significant role in providing development opportunities to countries in the Global South, Andile said, noting that some BRICS initiatives are quite important and need to be implemented faster than currently.

Some multilateral cooperation mechanisms are referred to as mere “talks” because they tend to be abstract, but BRICS has proven to be different, and BRICS has achieved many tangible results that set it apart, Wang Youming, director of the China Institute of Developing Countries, Beijing Institute of International Studies , said the Global Times.

For example, the New Development Bank established by BRICS has made significant contributions to infrastructure development and sustainable growth in developing countries, and the establishment of the BRICS Partnership for the New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center in Xiamen (China) has achieved significant achievements resulting in political communication, project development and talent training, Wang said.

It is this pragmatic and action-oriented spirit of BRICS that has resonated with many countries in the Global South, many of which are eager to join BRICS and expand their benefits through collective cooperation, the expert said.

Voice of the Global South

BRICS countries primarily play a bridging and mitigating role in resolving ongoing security crises, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Li said China’s proposed Global Security Initiative has already been fully reflected in the BRICS mechanism, which means member states will strive to lead existing crises, conflicts and unrest to a path of gradual mitigation and resolution.

Many countries in the Global South oppose the Western approach of intensifying conflicts and providing military support. Instead, they favor political solutions and a diplomatic approach to resolving disputes, Wang noted. He stressed that the summit aims to amplify the voices of the Global South on ongoing global conflicts and propose an alternative to the Western way of solving hotspot problems.

In an interview with Russia Today on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed that Egypt is against the policy of political polarization, saying that “we face serious and existential challenges at the regional and international levels, and this issue requires consensus among major countries.

“We count on this economic bloc (BRICS) to be the voice of the Global South and developing countries,” Abdelatty said.

BRICS is one of the key symbols of the transition towards multipolarity. Its demographic, economic, energy, political, diplomatic, security and normative power has enhanced its soft power. Supporters of multipolarity around the world, whether in Asia, Africa, South America or the Middle East, rightly oppose the imposition of a Western “rules-based order” and the imposition of Western values, norms, institutional arrangements and development paths, Aleksandar Mitic told the daily ” Global Times” research fellow at the Center for Belt and Road Studies at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, Serbia.

BRICS has never aspired to replace any existing organizations, and its goal is to reform and modernize the inequities of the existing global order, strive for a system that is fair and equitable, and advocate a governance model characterized by shared decision-making, consultation and shared benefit, Zhu said Tianxiang, dean of the BRICS Studies Institute at Sichuan University of International Studies.