On August 24, 2023, the Press Center of Chinese Delegation held a briefing for Chinese and foreign media in Johannesburg, South Africa, and invited Special Envoy on BRICS Affairs and Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Li Kexin to brief the media on President Xi Jinping's attendance at the 15th BRICS Summit and take questions from the press.
Li Kexin said that from August 22 to 24, President Xi Jinping attended the BRICS Summit, and had an in-depth exchange of views with other BRICS leaders on BRICS cooperation, the international situation, and other important issues. President Xi profoundly expounded on the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, and gave an in-depth explanation of the rich substance of Chinese modernization drive. President Xi elaborated on China's positions and propositions on strengthening practical cooperation among BRICS countries in such fields as economy and trade, security, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and global governance, and put forth a series of specific initiatives on cooperation, charting the course for BRICS development.
Li said that this is the first in-person summit BRICS has held post-pandemic, and the third one held in Africa. The theme of the summit "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism" is of important significance for synergizing BRICS cooperation with Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the process for the Agreement Establishing African Continental Free Trade Area. Leaders of the five countries reached an agreement on the guiding principles, standards and procedures of membership expansion, and agreed to invite Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Argentina, Iran and Ethiopia to join BRICS as formal members.
Li noted that BRICS countries are firmly committed to supporting inclusive multilateralism and safeguarding peace and development, and emphasize the need to resolve issues facing peace and security according to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. As this year is the year for midterm review of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, the five countries, committed to realizing the 17 goals for sustainable development, agreed to prioritize development issues on the international agenda. The five countries called for efforts to deepen cooperation on climate change, and follow the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and urged developed countries to deliver on their promise of providing 100 billion US dollars per year for climate action in developing countries. The five countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation in trade, food, energy, security and other areas to achieve post-pandemic economic recovery at an early date. They stressed the need to continue to enhance cross-border payment cooperation and alignment of payment systems, increase the proportion of local currencies in use, study payment tools and platforms for cooperation on local currency settlement, and further leverage the role of the New Development Bank.
On BRICS cooperation, Li stressed three points:
First, the expansion is of great historic significance. Last year, BRICS started the expansion process during China's chairmanship. China has since been working with other BRICS members to steadily advance the expansion process. Many emerging markets and developing countries have given positive considerations to joining BRICS and more than 20 countries submitted their applications, which speaks volumes about the appeal and influence of BRICS and the enthusiasm and aspiration of emerging markets and developing countries for cooperation. The expansion demonstrates the determination of BRICS countries to unite and cooperate with fellow developing countries. It meets the expectations of the international community and serves the common interests of emerging markets and developing countries. The expansion also marks a new starting point for BRICS cooperation, and will inject fresh vitality into the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and further enlarge the force for world peace and development. After expansion, the proportion of the land area of BRICS countries to the world's total will increase from 26 percent to 32 percent, its combined population from 42 percent to 47 percent, its economic aggregate from 26 percent to 29 percent, and its total trade in goods from 18 percent to 21 percent.
Second, it is necessary to continue to strengthen the BRICS architecture for mutually beneficial cooperation with political and security cooperation, economic, trade and financial cooperation, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges as the three main drivers, and enhance cooperation among BRICS members, especially cooperation with the six new members, in such areas as digital economy, artificial intelligence, small- and medium-sized enterprises, business and trade, and tourism and health.
Third, it is necessary to stay committed to the direction of cooperation between BRICS countries and fellow developing countries as well as the Global South, pursue mutual benefit and win-win results, and safeguard common interests, rather than ganging up to form exclusive groups and engaging in bloc confrontation.
In answering relevant questions, Li further elaborated on the BRICS principles and spirit of mutual respect and accommodation, sovereign equality, solidarity and democracy, openness and inclusiveness, deepening cooperation and consensus by consultation as demonstrated in BRICS cooperation and BRICS expansion. He also answered questions from Chinese and foreign journalists on strengthening BRICS cooperation on cross-border payment, local currency settlement, and connections between the expansion of the New Development Bank and BRICS expansion, among others.
Journalists from more than 30 Chinese and foreign media, including the Mail and Guardian and Business Live of South Africa, the South African Institute of International Affairs, TV BRICS, Reuters, Bloomberg, L'Agence France-Presse (AFP), People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group (CMG), China News Service, Phoenix TV, and Global Times, were present at the briefing.
