BRICS scholars propose innovative cooperation

Scholars from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa attended a BRICS seminar on the theme of high-quality shared development that was held online in Beijing on Tuesday.

The online seminar was sponsored by the Bureau of International Cooperation, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Institute of Latin American Studies, CASS, in support of the 14th BRICS Summit that will be held in China later this month. The Office of Xiamen Leading Group for BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center co-organized the forum.

Scholars exchanged opinions on the BRICS's role and development in the international system, global development as well as the coordination of various global and regional development strategies.

Participants stressed the growing importance of innovation in the BRICS mechanism and cooperation, and how it should have greater say in the international system to protect the interests of developing countries. The innovation of "BRICS Plus" cooperation was reiterated.

Wang Lei, director-general of the Bureau of International Cooperation, CASS, said, "China's proposals, the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, provide a fundamental guidance for BRICS to deepen security and development cooperation."

According to Edith Dinong Phaswana, director of Academic Programs, Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs in South Africa, initiating proposals enable China with greater flexibility and room in the international system, which the BRICS needs to consider when making contributions to the transformation of the international order.

Vladimir Petrovsky, professor of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Russia, proposed that developing nations better ready a plan B to avoid negative consequences of unexpected developments such as the sanctions imposed on Russia.

Speaking of South-South cooperation in just transition, Renata Albuquerque Ribeiro, research Fellow of Plataforma CIPO in Brazil, said, "composed of the world's major developing countries, the BRICS is the most possible approach for developing countries to explore energy transformation.

Andrey Kortunov, director-general of the Russian International Affairs Council, said diverse regional integration strategies have made an impact on the BRICS and the "BRICS Plus" could be a new form of multilateral economic cooperation to help the BRICS out.