BRICS committed to building a community with a shared future

After holding in-depth talks on BRICS cooperation and global governance at the 11th BRICS summit in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia recently, the five member countries issued the Declaration of Brasilia. The summit consolidated the BRICS strategic partnership and suggested ways to meet the severe challenges facing the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which have arisen due to some international factors and changes within the BRICS countries themselves. In short, the BRICS leaders conveyed to the rest of the world a message of solidarity.

The BRICS summit was held against the backdrop of the world experiencing great changes and facing unprecedented challenges, and a certain Western power resorting to unilateralism and using an "alienation policy" against BRICS countries, which has prompted Brazil and India to adjust their foreign policy.

The world economy has not fully recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis. Instead, it has become increasingly divided, which has directly affected the economic growth and trade cooperation of the BRICS countries. In the first half of 2019, Brazil, India and South Africa welcomed new governments, and their domestic and foreign policies have undergone adjustments before gradually stabilizing. But, as the Brasilia summit showed, the BRICS countries are back on the track of sound cooperation, and ready to step up efforts to address common challenges and explore new cooperation channels.

The Brasilia summit helped the BRICS countries reach a consensus on upholding multilateralism and reforming the global governance system, in order to inject confidence into the international community. This is particularly important at a time when some developed countries, obsessed with putting their own interests first, have turned to protectionism and unilateralism, thereby increasing uncertainty and threatening global peace.

In view of such developments, the BRICS countries have vowed to defend multilateralism. As the most important force safeguarding multilateralism and global governance, BRICS reaffirmed that the grouping will resolutely respond to the challenges facing multilateralism, and consolidate and maintain the core status of the United Nations in international relations and other global affairs.

Especially, as 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UN, the BRICS countries should continue to push forward the comprehensive reform of and enhance the representation of emerging and developing countries in the UN and its Security Council.

The Brasilia summit highlighted the role of trade, economic and financial cooperation as an "anchor" and "stabilizer" for overall BRICS cooperation, and the importance of the BRICS countries promoting openness and innovation to achieve more robust growth. In recent years, due to the spillover effects of rising trade and geopolitical tensions among major economies, the global economy has become further polarized, which has affected the BRICS countries' growth prospects.

To tackle this challenge, the Brasilia summit highlighted the importance of innovation-based development and scientific and technological cooperation. And by reaching a consensus on practical economic and trade cooperation among the BRICS countries and supporting the multilateral trading system, the Brasilia summit has paved the way for building of an open world economy.

Of late, some developed economies have adopted self-centered economic policies, even provoked trade disputes with other countries by resorting to trade protectionism, and thus damaged the global multilateral trading system and the BRICS countries' growth prospects.

The BRICS countries strongly advocated that the core status of the World Trade Organization in the global multilateral trading system be maintained, and the world order be based on international law. As beneficiaries of globalization and representatives of developing countries, BRICS countries should deepen their cooperation in order to reform the global economic governance system and build a more reasonable and sustainable global economic order.

The Brasilia summit ushered in the second decade for BRICS, consolidated the strategic partnership among the BRICS countries, and promoted the formation of a BRICS community of shared future. And in the long run, it will help the BRICS countries to work with other emerging economies and developing countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

The author is director of the Center for BRICS Cooperation Studies at Beijing Normal University. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.