At a virtual BRICS Summit held in Beijing on Monday, China’s President Xi Jinping urged BRICS nations to work together to support both multilateralism and the multilateral trading system.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Xi stated that BRICS countries, as representatives of the Global South, should stick to the BRICS Spirit – openness, inclusiveness, and cooperation. He encouraged them to jointly uphold multilateralism and the multilateral trading system to strengthen BRICS cooperation. He also urged them to build a community with a shared future.
Xi encouraged BRICS countries to support multilateralism to ensure international fairness and justice. He also urged them to keep up open, win-win cooperation to protect the international economic and trade order.
Xi, according to Xinhua, said that BRICS nations must remain united and cooperative to create synergy for shared growth.
The summit was led by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and officials from India and Ethiopia all participated.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated at a news conference on Monday that the BRICS cooperation mechanism is a key platform for collaboration between emerging markets and developing countries. He said that to deal with rising unilateralism and protectionism, BRICS countries are jointly promoting multilateralism, maintaining fairness, and driving common growth. He added that they have become a good, stable, and positive force in global affairs.
Some observers in China noted that the virtual session happened as collaboration within the group is speeding up and growing. They said holding the session in this format shows innovative and real-world importance.
The timing is also related to the 80th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), with the 80th session of the UN General Assembly coming up in September.
Some commentators think that BRICS leaders will likely agree on a common position that supports multilateralism and reaffirms the UN’s key role in the world order.
Wang Lei, who heads the BRICS Cooperation Research Center at Beijing Normal University, mentioned that the virtual meeting will guide BRICS overall. He said that it would help the group achieve more practical results and offer solutions for major global political, economic, and security issues on behalf of the Global South.
Wang Lei added that China helps generate energy for BRICS cooperation. He said it both guides the direction and pushes the mechanism forward by providing support and ideas to help BRICS countries grow.
Wang Lei stated that China will continue to show leadership, making contributions and proposals to BRICS and the Global South. He said that it will drive cooperation into a new phase and boost common growth.
The growing BRICS group met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 17th BRICS Summit in July. They signed a joint statement with 126 agreements on global governance, finance, health, artificial intelligence, climate change, and other important areas. The document showed the group’s commitment to strengthening multilateralism, protecting international law, and working toward a more fair world order.
In the joint statement, the BRICS countries voiced concerns about the rise in one-sided trade and tariff measures. They said that these actions distort trade and do not follow WTO rules. They repeated their support for a trading system that is rules-based, open, transparent, fair, inclusive, equal, and based on agreement, with the WTO at its heart.
Wang Youming, who directs the Institute of Developing Countries of the China Institute of International Studies, said that the most basic question of the summit is still how to respond to growing trade protectionism. He added that BRICS will reach an important agreement on further strengthening cooperation and expanding trade among BRICS countries to deal with the current challenge.
President Xi stressed at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024 that BRICS members should work together to promote peace and protect universal security. He said that they should encourage innovation and high-quality growth, develop a green approach to be sustainable, and work toward global governance system reform, Xinhua reported.
Wang said that building on those goals set at last year’s Kazan summit, this time there will be a focus on taking action against trade unilateralism. He added that with the bigger BRICS framework now stabilized by three rounds of expansion and the establishment of a BRICS partner system, the mission is to make cooperation more practical and efficient.
The expert said that with a need to improve cooperation, the countries of BRICS have been seeking ways to cooperate, and this summit is a good example of this.
Wang Lei said that with economic and trade cooperation as the main focus, the summit will tackle major challenges in these areas. He said that it would set a strong base for the long-term growth of BRICS cooperation and make it more appealing to member and partner countries.
The virtual summit was also held after the SCO summit in Tianjin, where President Xi suggested the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). He asked countries to move toward a more fair global governance system. Some observers noted that the GGI also shows the desire of most countries, especially from the Global South.
Wang Lei said that China has been central to BRICS, both as a source of key ideas and as a driver of real cooperation.
Wang Lei added that BRICS is in line with current trends, at the front in representing the Global South. He said that through cooperation, it tries to make global governance more fair. He stated that bringing about a positive difference has always been a goal.
Analysts said that starting from Johannesburg in 2023 to the Kazan meeting in 2024 and Rio de Janeiro, BRICS has grown and introduced things such as BRICS plus and partner countries, which have made the voice of the Global South stronger.
