Above Photo: Flags and representatives of the BRICS countries and as well as those of other nations who aspire to join the group. AP.
Last week the 14th BRICS Summit took place virtually, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The BRICS bloc (Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) represents a key political, economic, and scientific force in the international arena. These nations represent half of the world’s population and their collective GDP is greater that $20 trillion.
In today’s context, the significance of the BRICS summit is increased to the extent that the bloc represents an alternative to the unipolar world of the decaying West.
What follows are some of the key points from the Summit’s in Beijing:
- Multilateral compromise in the defense of international law, which includes being more inclusive with less developed countries.
- Promote peace and international security without compromising the environment.
- Support for a an open, multilateral, transparent, inclusive, rules-based, non-discriminatory commercial system.
- Cooperation to combat COVID-19, with support for multilateral organizations but also searching for medicinal alternatives.
- Support dialogue between Russia and Ukraine from an impartial perspective.
- “We strongly support a peaceful, safe, and stable Afghanistan while we emphasize our respect for its sovereignty independence, territorial integrity, national unity, and non-interference in its internal affairs.”
- The necessity to resolve the nuclear problem in Iran through peaceful and diplomatic means in accordance with international law.
- Support for bilateral and multilateral negotiations in order to solve the problems related to the Korean peninsula.
- Compromise for a world free of nuclear arms.
- Cooperation against terrorism and the reaffirmation of the exclusive authority of the UN Security Council.
- International cooperation against corruption.
- Compromise to continue bettering the coordination of macroeconomic policy, to further practical economic cooperation, and to work to achieve post-COVID-19 economic recovery in a sustainable, balanced, and inclusive manner.
- “We commit to strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation to intensify the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR) and collectively create new opportunities for development.”
- “We encourage the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism to continue playing an important role in supporting BRICS economic and trade cooperation.”
- Opposition to green commercial barriers and support for coordination on this issue.
- Cooperation in agriculture.