By Yang Wanming
Chinese President will attend the 11th BRICS summit to be held on November 13 and 14 in Brazilian capital Brasilia at the invitation of his Brazilian counterpart Jair Messias Bolsonaro.
At the summit themed “Economic Growth for an Innovative Future”, the BRICS members are expected to make a collective voice to safeguard multilateralism and support free trade, and offer more solutions to advance BRICS pragmatic cooperation, cope with global challenges, and promote world peace and common development.
Xi noted that the BRICS mechanism owes its birth and growth to evolution of both the global economy and the international landscape. After more than 10 years of development, the BRICS mechanism has been further improved; the pragmatic cooperation has yielded rich fruits; the multilateral collaboration has been further enhanced; and the influence of the mechanism has kept rising.
The BRICS cooperation mechanism has become a stabilizer of the international landscape, a propeller of global economy and a major force for building a new type of international relations. It’s a strategic choice that conforms to the trend of the time.
The BRICS countries seek common development through win-win cooperation. Confronted with sluggish global economic recovery after the global financial crisis, the BRICS countries complemented each other’s advantages and forged closer ties, building a cooperation framework underpinned by economic, political and security cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.
Under the framework, the five countries established the BRICS New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, and implemented a bunch of projects for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Over the past ten years, the bloc’s share of global GDP has risen to nearly 25 percent, and it contributed to over 50 percent of global economic growth. The BRICS countries have made extraordinary contributions to global economic recovery and healthy development of global economy.
The BRICS countries safeguard multilateralism through improving governance, as the rising unilateralism, protectionism and bullying practices have led to increasing instability and uncertainty of the world.
Against this backdrop, the BRICS countries have voiced collectively to take the lead in supporting multilateralism, safeguarding the international system with the UN as the center, the international order based on international law and the multilateral trading system represented by the WTO, and defending the common interests and development of emerging markets and developing countries.
Their efforts reflect the aspiration of the international community and create positive energy to international cooperation.
The BRICS countries seize development opportunities through innovation. The new round of scientific and technological revolution is reshaping global economic structure and opening up unlimited space for future BRICS cooperation.
The member states are accelerating the construction of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution, the Innovation BRICS network and the BRICS Institute of Future Networks. Meanwhile, they are also exploring new development paths and growth drivers in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, digital economy and network security, so as to achieve higher-quality, more resilient, and more sustainable growth.
As the most representative emerging markets and the largest developing countries in the east and west hemispheres, China and Brazil have established a comprehensive strategic partnership.
In the past 45 years after establishing diplomatic ties, China and Brazil have enjoyed a sound and stable relationship with fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields. This relationship has become an example of solidarity, cooperation and common development between major developing countries.
In October 2019, President of Brazil Bolsonaro paid a state visit to China. The two presidents of two countries reached important consensus on pushing forward the Sino-Brazilian comprehensive strategic partnership and safeguarding multilateralism, so as to make the international order more just and equitable.
The strategic and overall significance of Sino-Brazilian comprehensive strategic partnership has become increasingly prominent at a time when the world is faced with major changes unseen in a century.
To continuously strengthen Sino-Brazilian cooperation under multilateral mechanisms such as the BRICS and to closely communicate and coordinate on major international and regional issues not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two countries, but also helps emerging markets and developing countries better safeguard their rights and interests.
The Brazilian community eagerly expects President Xi’s trip to Brazil and attendance at the BRICS summit, and anticipates his profound thinking and strategic proposals on how BRICS countries could get stronger through working together.
I firmly believe that President Xi’s trip will inject new energy into the intensive cooperation among BRICS countries and the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Brazil, and lead BRICS cooperation and Sino-Brazilian friendship to a new level.
(Yang Wanming is the Chinese Ambassador to Brazil.)
