Kazan: Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that the ongoing BRICS summit here has decided to invite a number of nations to become partner countries and called on the grouping to actively respond to the requests of countries of the Global South to join the bloc.
BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has now expanded with five additional members - Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
In his speech addressing the 16th BRICS Summit, Xi said the summit has decided to invite a number of nations to become partner countries, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
He hailed the decision as another important development in the course of BRICS development.
Xi said that the group of emerging economies should advance the process of expanding membership and establishing partner countries, and enhance the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance.
He called on BRICS members to build the multilateral mechanism into a major venue of solidarity and cooperation for the Global South and a vanguard force for global governance reform.
He said that the member states should build BRICS for peace and act as guardians of common security, upholding the three principles of no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no provocation by any party, to work for de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis as soon as possible.
"Only by embracing the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security can we pave the way for universal security," he said.
"The Ukraine crisis still persists. China and Brazil, in collaboration with other countries from the Global South, initiated a group of Friends for Peace to address the crisis," he said.
"We must uphold the three key principles: no expansion of the battlefields, no escalation of hostilities, and no fanning flames, and strive for swift de-escalation of the situation," he said.
"While the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, the flames of war have once again been rekindled in Lebanon, and conflicts are escalating among the parties. We must promote an immediate ceasefire and an end to the killing. We must make unremitting efforts toward a comprehensive, just and lasting resolution of the Palestinian question," he said.
Xi also called for building a BRICS for justice and leading the reform of the global governance system and urged the members to conform to the general trend of the rise of the Global South, and actively respond to the call of countries to join the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
He said there is urgency to reform the international financial architecture in the current situation and called for strengthening the New Development Bank of the BRICS to take the lead in promoting a better alignment of the international financial system with the changing dynamics of the global economy.
He said China will establish 10 overseas learning centres in BRICS countries in the next five years to provide training opportunities for 1,000 education administrators, teachers and students.
Xi said BRICS should become a platform for innovation and act as a pioneer for high-quality development.
"China will establish a BRICS Deep-Sea Resources International Research Centre, a China Centre for Cooperation on Development of Special Economic Zones in BRICS Countries, a China Centre for BRICS Industrial Competencies, and a BRICS Digital Ecosystem Cooperation Network. We welcome active participation from all interested parties to promote the high-quality upgrading of BRICS cooperation," he said.
He said the BRICS members should work to build green BRICS and be practitioners of sustainable development, noting that China is willing to leverage its own advantages to expand cooperation with BRICS countries in green industries, clean energy and green minerals.
