BRICS urged to enhance its solidarity

Beijing has highlighted the need for BRICS to build on openness and solidarity among the Global South countries, as the Foreign Ministry announced that President Xi Jinping will attend the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, from Tuesday to Thursday.

Analysts are closely following this year's summit because they said it is the first to be held after the most recent historic expansion of BRICS, and it is also the first year of what its members have called "greater BRICS cooperation".

During the summit, Xi will attend small-group and large-group talks, as well as the BRICS Plus leaders' dialogues, and deliver important speeches.

He will have in-depth exchanges with leaders on the current international situation, BRICS practical cooperation, the development of the BRICS mechanism and important issues of common concern.

"China stands ready to work with other parties to strive for the steady and sustained development of greater BRICS cooperation, open a new era for the Global South to seek strength through solidarity and jointly promote world peace and development," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

Since the establishment of BRICS, member countries have always upheld the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, she told a regular news conference on Friday.

These members have "remained true to its founding purpose of seeking strength through solidarity, stayed committed to upholding multilateralism and become a positive and stable force for good in international affairs", she said.

Experts and officials said the BRICS cooperation mechanism has grown to be an essential platform for emerging market countries and developing countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and safeguard common interests.

After the most recent expansion, BRICS countries' share of global trade has exceeded 20 percent, further expanding their international influence.

In the first three quarters of this year, China's imports and exports with the other BRICS member countries totaled 4.62 trillion yuan ($650.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent, according to China's General Administration of Customs.

"Under the guidance of the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win, the big BRICS family has continued to achieve new fruits in trade and exchanges," said Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs.

In the industrial sector, China and other BRICS countries "have been complementing each other in fundamental sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals and textiles", he said at a news conference on Monday.

"In the first three quarters, China's exports of intermediate goods such as integrated circuits, flat-panel display modules and aircraft parts to other BRICS countries all saw double-digit growth," he added.

With the first summit after the latest expansion ready to kick off, China's economic and trade cooperation with the other BRICS countries "will also continue to go deeper and be more solid" in the future, he said.

Speaking of the upcoming Kazan summit, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said Russia is an important BRICS partner of China. Beijing "is pleased with the progress made by Russia as the chair of BRICS", and it will continue to support Russia as a good host to make the summit a success, he added.

"The BRICS countries play an important role on the international stage," Zhang told a Russian TV station last week.

The ambassador also referred to the special summit of BRICS leaders on the Palestine-Israel issue held last year, as well as the BRICS countries' joint efforts to defend the rights and interests of developing countries in multilateral mechanisms, such as the Group of 20.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn