Global Times (18 Jun 2022) – The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday that President Xi Jinping will host the 14th BRICS Summit in Beijing on June 23. The Summit will be held in virtual format under the theme of “Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development.” It will be a feast where all BRICS members, as well as the vast number of emerging market countries and developing countries, jointly demonstrate to the world the BRICS spirit of “openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation” against the background of increasingly unstable, uncertain and insecure factors in the international situation.
As issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and regional conflicts continue to unsettle the world, the BRICS mechanism has not only shown no cracks nor faded, but has also demonstrated stronger vitality and better quality. The cooperation aspect of the BRICS mechanism continues to expand and deepen, creating a bright and positive atmosphere. It does not only inject more BRICS power into global development, but also injects more positive energy into a turbulent and challenging world.
The BRICS Summit also takes place under a deeper background, that is, the US pulling its Western allies to “rebel” against globalization, and Washington is politically minded on global development issues, making economic issues political and security ones and overthrowing the smoothly functioning mechanism of the global division of labor. The multilateralism mechanism established after World War II is being relentlessly undermined by the US. This has become the source of various regional crises.
Where should globalization and multilateralism go? Since the establishment of the BRICS cooperation mechanism 16 years ago, five non-Western emerging market powers have carried out valuable explorations and efforts in multilateral cooperation with non-Western styles, forms and principles, and have achieved remarkable results. It should be emphasized that the BRICS mechanism is not a so-called anti-West bloc. Some people in the US and the West view the BRICS mechanism from this perspective with vigilance, which is narrow-minded and narcissistic. From the very beginning, the BRICS countries had a broad vision, hoping to find a more inclusive and sustainable way for humans to work together. This is groundbreaking. It also shows that by adhering to openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, we can discover a wider world.
Some people in the US and the West have badmouthed BRICS. In their eyes, the BRICS cooperation mechanism is inconceivable from its establishment to development. However, BRICS cooperation has broken the imagination of the US and the West. Now, US and Western public opinion remains silent to the BRICS Summit. It is conceivable that there are extremely complicated sentiments behind such changing attitudes.
The five BRICS countries have different political systems, historical cultures and values, and there are still some realistic differences and disputes among them. But these have not prevented the five countries from coming together and reaching where they are standing now. What the BRICS countries are pursuing is not only to seek common ground while reserving differences, but also to seek common ground and resolve differences, as well as gradually dilute differences and disputes through mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation. With the guidance of the principle, cooperation among BRICS countries has become more and more solid. In 2021, total trade between China and the BRICS countries reached $490.42 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39.2 percent. The figure was doubled compared to the $241.7 billion in 2016. The economic and trade cooperation among the BRICS countries has not only promoted their own economic and social development, but also become an important engine for the recovery of the world economy.
China holds the rotating presidency of BRICS this year. This year is the BRICS’ “China Year.” With the active support of all parties, China has successfully held more than 70 conferences and events as the BRICS chair since the beginning of the year, which cover the fields of political security, economy, trade, finance, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, sustainable development as well as public health, and have promoted the progress of BRICS cooperation in various aspects. These tangible achievements have contributed to and reinforced BRICS cooperation and laid a solid foundation for the upcoming BRICS summit.
We have seen that some countries have made a lot of noise and taken many actions in previous months to hinder world peace and development. In such a context, the upcoming BRICS summit will be of great value. Countries need security and the world needs development. The population of BRICS countries accounts for 41 percent of the world’s total, contributing 24 percent to world GDP and 18 percent to world trade. BRICS cooperation contains enormous energy to promote global development and demonstrates a bright future that we can expect.