BRICS ties deliver tangible benefits

Under the bright lights of an operating room at a hospital in Xiamen, Fujian province, Eric Rodrigo Morales Mercado, a Brazilian cardiologist, performs a minimally invasive cardiac procedure alongside Chinese doctors, gaining hands-on experience that he hopes to bring back to Brazil.

The Brazilian doctor is in China as a visiting scholar under the Heart Sapling Program, a special initiative launched to strengthen medical cooperation among BRICS countries and help train young doctors from the Global South.

For Mercado, the value of the experience is not measured in diplomatic communiques, but in what he can eventually take home. "Living and working in China changed absolutely the way that I see the world," he said. "For me, this is a life changer. We are here for a goal, and this goal is to learn some technique (and) bring that to our country."

The program encapsulates a broader vision advanced by President Xi Jinping — that BRICS cooperation should translate into tangible benefits for people across the Global South.

In 2017, when BRICS leaders gathered in Xiamen, Xi called for the partnership to "open the door to a second 'Golden Decade'", and make BRICS cooperation benefit the people of its then five member countries as well as the people of other countries.

Speaking at a virtual BRICS summit in September 2025, Xi again called for member countries of the grouping to leverage their respective strengths, deepen practical cooperation and make business, financial, scientific and technological cooperation more productive, in order to strengthen the foundation, momentum and impact of greater BRICS cooperation and deliver more practical benefits.

From Saturday to Sunday, Xi will attend the 18th BRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi, India, during which he will put forward key Chinese proposals and initiatives to chart the course for the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation.

Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that China stands ready to work with all BRICS parties to ensure that greater cooperation moves forward steadily and to contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

Over the past decade, BRICS has expanded both in terms of membership and areas of cooperation, moving beyond economic coordination into health, trade, technology, innovation and other sectors. BRICS countries now account for nearly half of the world's population, about 40 percent of global GDP and over one-fourth of global trade.

He Yun, a senior researcher at the Belt and Road Institute of Tsinghua University, said the past decade has seen BRICS cooperation undergo important changes — from mechanism-building to more practical cooperation, from the original five members to a broader "BRICS Plus" framework, and from an economic coordination platform toward an important platform for Global South participation in global governance.

"China's role in BRICS cooperation goes beyond its economic weight. It has simultaneously acted as an advocate of new ideas, a builder of cooperation mechanisms and a provider of public goods," she said.

The senior researcher noted that China has promoted BRICS cooperation on poverty reduction, food security, the digital economy, industrialization and green development, including efforts to align these areas with the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"China's contribution has been not only to put forward ideas and a vision for cooperation among Global South countries, but also to turn those ideas into institutions, platforms and projects," she said.

Since 2017, China has launched a host of mechanisms to promote BRICS cooperation, including the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, the China Center for Cooperation on Development of Special Economic Zones in BRICS Countries, and the China Center for BRICS Industrial Competencies.

Zhou Ying, chief of the International Cooperation Division of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, said the fundamental change brought by BRICS expansion is not simply an increase in membership, but a significant broadening of the substance of cooperation and the needs of participating nations.

A key mandate of the center is to help more Chinese enterprises expand their reach into BRICS countries.

Under the platform's facilitation, Chinese companies have traveled to Brazil specifically to source coffee beans, helping more Brazilian coffee farmers gain access to the vast Chinese market, Zhou said.

"We have also helped Chinese automakers enter the Ethiopian market, enabling more Chinese new energy vehicles to hit the streets of Ethiopia," Zhou added.

Marcos Caldeira, a Brazilian businessman who first arrived in Xiamen in 2013, has seen his business increase with the expansion of BRICS cooperation.

Caldeira, who comes from Vitoria, one of Brazil's major centers for the natural stone industry, said his business began by connecting Brazilian stone suppliers with the Chinese market. As the relationship developed, the flow began moving in both directions, linking producers and consumers in the two countries.

After the BRICS summit in Xiamen in 2017, Caldeira's business received a boost. Today, two or three vessels carrying Brazilian stone arrive in China each month, he said, adding that smoother trade allows him to offer better prices to customers. "It's like a chain, so everything works much more smoothly."

For Caldeira, BRICS is, therefore, not an abstract international grouping. Instead, it signifies ships leaving ports, workers processing stone, businesses finding customers and consumers gaining access to products.

"I hope more countries can join BRICS, because more countries (means) more business, more opportunity, more trading," he said.

With China set to assume BRICS' rotating presidency in 2027, a decade after the Xiamen summit, expectations are running high that Beijing will continue promoting BRICS cooperation toward a greater scope and more tangible outcomes.

During a meeting in July, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to promote prosperity through development, stability through security, mutual trust through exchanges among civilizations and fairness through better global governance. Together, the BRICS countries will open up a future of peace and prosperity, Wang added.

At the 16th BRICS Trade Ministers' Meeting in August, Li Chenggang, China's international trade representative and vice-minister of commerce, said that China is ready to deepen cooperation with BRICS members in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, the digital economy, trade in services, green minerals, artificial intelligence and special economic zones.

China will also explore institutional arrangements for economic and trade cooperation as well as economic integration, promote the high-quality development of expanded BRICS cooperation, and safeguard the common interests of the Global South, Li said.

He Yun, the Tsinghua University researcher, said that China's rotating presidency of BRICS in 2027 will be particularly significant, as the "Greater BRICS" cooperation mechanism will enter a new stage, shifting from expanding its scale to improving governance and enhancing effectiveness.

"In promoting BRICS cooperation, China has fully leveraged its strengths in markets, industry, technology and financing while respecting the development needs of other members and encouraging all countries to jointly propose projects, formulate rules and share the benefits," she said. "China's role in 2027 should be that of a coordinator of consensus, a builder of institutions and a provider of public goods."

Olugbenga Abiodun, a cardiologist from Nigeria, which is a BRICS partner country, said he believes the BRICS health cooperation program launched by China will help improve the West African country's healthcare system and, eventually, its whole economy.

Abiodun, who is also a participant of the Heart Sapling Program, said many Nigerian patients still travel abroad for advanced medical treatment, and training more specialists in Nigeria could help change that.

"If a large number of Nigerian doctors are appropriately trained, and their specialist capacity is increased, then there won't be any reason for Nigerians to go outside the shores of the country to seek quality healthcare," he said.

Abiodun also said that he sees room for broader cooperation with China in healthcare financing, low-cost medical technologies, equipment and consumables, generic pharmaceuticals and supply chains.

"It's a life-changing program. It has improved my abilities, my capacity. This is a brilliant initiative by the BRICS community," he added.

Contact the writers at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn