Amid changes in the global landscape, the BRICS bloc of five emerging economies is expected to play a larger role in global governance in its second "golden decade."
Leaders from Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa are meeting on Sept. 3-5 at the ninth annual BRICS summit in Xiamen, China. They are expected to charter the future course for the bloc that now contributes more than half of the global growth.[Special coverage]
A sluggish global economy, a surge in protectionism in some Western countries, the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, and geopolitical blackswans, among others, have posed new challenges and uncertainties.
However, the situation also contains opportunities for building a fairer order in global governance.
With the jungle law and the zero-sum game giving way to the shared aspiration for peace, development and win-win cooperation, "a large number of emerging markets and developing countries have come to the fore, playing an ever greater role in international affairs," Chinese President Xi Jinping noted during a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on Sunday.
During the BRICS Xiamen summit, dialogues with Mexico, Egypt, Thailand, Guinea and Tajikistan will further build up the "BRICS Plus" model aimed at expanding partnership with developing countries in particular.
The model is considered part of a bid to promote BRICS as a leading platform for South-South cooperation, which will help push inclusive growth and globalization while making development and benefit distribution more balanced and fairer.
As a key player in this endeavor, the BRICS New Development Bank that focuses on infrastructure and sustainable development projects has just opened its first regional office in Johannesburg, and intends to open more.
The BRICS' demands have pushed the progressive reform of the global economic governance architecture. For example, the voting rights of China and India are increased in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
There are also calls for the bloc to play a larger, more conducive role in solving regional and global political and security issues, and safeguarding peace.
As "BRICS cooperation has now reached a crucial stage" in an era of development, transformation and adjustment, Xi urged the bloc's countries to work together for a second "golden decade."
Expanding internal economic and trade cooperation based on mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, together with increasing cultural and people-to-people exchanges, is expected to help prepare a more stable and solid BRICS for a louder, stronger and even one voice on international affairs.
The bloc is also seeking to enhance its mechanism building so as to shape a stronger partnership for a brighter future, as reads the theme of the BRICS Xiamen summit.
