Cooperation of BRICS states to benefit world

China has played an active role in guiding cooperation among the BRICS nations to promote multilateralism in the face of global challenges and has pushed for the bloc's cooperation to benefit more emerging economies and developing countries, experts said ahead of the 13th BRICS summit, to be held on Thursday.

President Xi Jinping will attend the summit in Beijing via video link at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

The summit, which involves the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will be held with the theme of "BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus".

The leaders will also exchange views on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues.

Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that as an essential platform for developing countries to respond to challenges and overcome difficulties, the BRICS cooperation mechanism will help boost and safeguard multilateralism, especially at a time when the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century.

He suggested that the BRICS countries should strengthen cooperation on public health, such as COVID-19 vaccine cooperation and the exchange of anti-pandemic experience, to better address similar crises in the future.

The BRICS nations also reiterated their commitment to multilateralism by issuing joint statements at the 11th BRICS Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting, held via video link last week, and a virtual meeting of foreign ministers in June.

Due to the pandemic, it will be the second time that a virtual BRICS summit is held. However, Wang Lei, director of Beijing Normal University's BRICS Cooperation Center, said: "BRICS cooperation has still achieved solid results in the economic and financial field, one of the bloc's three pillars, despite the pandemic."

During last week's economic and trade ministers' meeting, several documents were adopted, including a framework for the protection of e-commerce consumers and a road map to implement the strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025 in the field of trade and investment.

Accounting for more than 40 percent of the world's population, the BRICS countries－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa－account for 24 percent of global GDP and 16 percent of world trade.

"We can see that the BRICS countries have reached consensus on how to deal with the current economic difficulties by boosting their cooperation," Wang said.

On Sept 2, the BRICS New Development Bank announced that it will add the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Bangladesh as its members.

By providing fundraising services to support infrastructure construction and sustainable development, the BRICS nations are making concrete efforts to expand their cooperation to benefit more emerging economies and developing countries, Wang said.