Full text of Chinese president's remarks at BRICS Brasilia Summit

BRASILIA - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday delivered a speech titled "Together for a New Chapter in BRICS Cooperation" at the plenary session of the BRICS Brasilia Summit.

The following is an English translation of the full text of the speech:

Together for a New Chapter in BRICS Cooperation

Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

At the Plenary Session of the BRICS Brasilia Summit

Brasilia, 14 November 2019

Your Excellency President Jair Bolsonaro,

Your Excellency President Vladimir Putin,

Your Excellency Prime Minister Narendra Modi,

Your Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa,

It gives me great pleasure to join you in this meeting in Brasilia. Let me first thank President Bolsonaro for the kind invitation and gracious hospitality.

This is my third visit to Brazil in ten years. Stepping once again on this land of vibrancy, I am deeply impressed by its vastness and natural endowment, by the friendly people, and by the great promise the country holds.

We are meeting at a time when crucial developments are taking place in the world economy and international landscape. A burgeoning round of technological revolution and industrial transformation has created more opportunities for countries across the globe to achieve leapfrog development. Meanwhile, the unstoppable rise of emerging markets and developing countries has injected strong impetus to the reform of the global economic governance system. Nevertheless, there are also causes for concern: rising protectionism and unilateralism; greater deficit of governance, development and trust; and growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors in the world economy.

Faced with profound changes rarely seen in a century, major emerging markets and developing countries like us must grasp the trend of the times. We must respond to the call of our people, and shoulder our responsibilities. We must remain true to our unwavering commitment to development and strengthen solidarity and cooperation for the well-being of our people and for the development of our world.

-- Let us work to foster a security environment of peace and stability. Our world has yet to achieve full peace. As we speak, tensions continue in regional security situations; hotspot issues keep emerging; traditional and non-traditional security threats are interwoven. Challenges of a global nature are becoming more prominent.

We need to take it as our aim to safeguard peace and development for all; we need to uphold fairness and justice and promote win-win results; we need to base our efforts on international law and widely recognized norms of international relations; we need to champion and put into practice multilateralism. It is important that we uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the UN-centered international system, oppose hegemonism and power politics, and take a constructive part in settling geopolitical flash points. We can use BRICS mechanisms, including the meetings of our ministers of foreign affairs/international relations and high representatives for security issues, the working groups on counter-terrorism and cybersecurity, and the regular meetings among our permanent representatives to multilateral institutions, to maintain close strategic communication and coordination and speak in one voice for a more just and equitable international order.

-- Let us pursue greater development prospects through openness and innovation. Development is what really matters to all. Many of the world's problems are rooted in unbalanced and inadequate development. We must therefore seize the opportunities that come with reform and innovation. We need to deepen the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution, and strive for more productive cooperation in such fields as trade and investment, digital economy, and connectivity. These efforts will surely lend impetus to economic growth and high-quality development in our five countries.

At present, economic globalization is encountering setbacks, which reveal, to a certain degree, the flaws existing in the global governance system. We the BRICS countries need to play our role as responsible major countries. We need to advocate extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits in global governance, and push for reform of the global economic governance system. We need to stand firm against protectionism, uphold the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, and increase the voice and influence of emerging markets and developing countries in international affairs. We need to prioritize development in the global macro policy framework, follow through the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, and promote coordinated progress in the economic, social and environmental spheres.

-- Let us promote mutual learning through people-to-people exchanges. Human history is one of civilizations living and prospering together in diversity. Countries, regions and ethnic groups with varied histories, religions and customs have offered inspirations to each other and together contributed to a diverse and colorful world.

We the BRICS countries have many best practices to offer when it comes to cultural interactions. Over recent years, we have carried out flourishing cultural exchanges. Film festivals, sports games as well as film and documentary co-production have rolled in to the delight of our people, thus creating a bridge for our people to be brought still closer together. We need to sustain and build up this momentum to take our people-to-people exchanges to greater breadth and depth. On that basis, we can leverage "BRICS Plus" cooperation as a platform to increase dialogue with other countries and civilizations and win BRICS more friends and partners.

Dear Colleagues,

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past seven decades, working under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the resilient and assiduous Chinese people have blazed a trail of socialism with Chinese characteristics and embarked on an epic journey toward national rejuvenation.

Going forward, China will open up still wider. We will import more goods and services, ease market access for foreign investments, and step up intellectual property protection. With these efforts, we will break new ground in pursuing all-dimensional, multi-tiered and all-sectoral opening-up in China.

China will continue to act in the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and pursue open, green, and clean cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. We will continue to follow a high-standard, people-centered, and sustainable approach to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with partner countries.

China will stay committed to an independent foreign policy of peace and to the path of peaceful development. We will continue to enhance friendship and cooperation with all other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. To be more specific, China will deliver the follow-ups to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and work with Africa for an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future; China will pursue closer cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in political, economic, trade, cultural, and regional and international affairs and build a China-LAC community with a shared future and common progress; and China will take a long-term perspective, deepen the Asia-Pacific partnership, and work for an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future of openness and inclusiveness, innovation-driven growth, greater connectivity, and mutually beneficial cooperation. All in all, China will work with the rest of the international community toward the goal of building a new type of international relationship and of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Colleagues,

A review of historic achievements gives ample room of expectation for the future. As we enter the second "Golden Decade" of BRICS cooperation, let us work in concert and with continued efforts to write a new chapter in not only BRICS cooperation but also South-South cooperation and the mutually beneficial cooperation of countries around the world.

Thank you.