Beijing: China Friday said it ‘recognises and appreciates’ India’s contributions during its one-year presidency of the BRICS bloc culminating in its 13th summit presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday.
India was this year’s chair for the five-member bloc that holds the rotating Presidency. This was the second time Prime Minister Modi chaired the BRICS summit. Earlier, he had chaired the Goa summit in 2016.
China will host the 14th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit next year.
Asked to comment on BRICS partnership and different agreements reached by the five-member bloc under India’s Presidency, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters here: “We recognise and appreciate India’s contributions during its chairmanship in the past year, including its hosting of this summit”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who took part in the summit via video link on Thursday, said that during its Presidency next year, China looks forward to working with BRICS partners to deepen cooperation in all areas and build a closer and more results-oriented partnership to meet common challenges and create a better future.
The summit was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The theme of the summit was “Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus.” The summit this year coincided with the 15th anniversary of the BRICS.
Elaborating on Xi’s address, Zhao highlighted the five proposals put forward by the Chinese President to advance the high-quality development of BRICS practical cooperation.
Xi’s proposals included strengthening public health cooperation in the spirit of solidarity.
The Chinese President said that BRICS countries need to support each other’s COVID-19 response, pursue practical cooperation on vaccines, including joint research and production and mutual recognition of standards, and facilitate an early launch of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre in a virtual format.
Xi has also proposed to strengthen international cooperation on vaccines in the spirit of equitable access for all and said that China will donate an additional 100 million doses of vaccines to the developing countries within this year.
He also suggested strengthening economic cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefit.
China proposes to host a BRICS high-level meeting on climate change and a BRICS forum on big data for sustainable development, Xi said.
“We welcome the substantive progress made in expanding the membership of the New Development Bank (NDB),” he said.
He also proposed to strengthen political and security cooperation in the spirit of fairness and justice.
“We need to consolidate the BRICS strategic partnership, support each other on issues concerning our respective core interests, better coordinate our position on major international and regional issues, and send out an even bigger, collective voice of BRICS countries,” the Chinese President said.
Xi has proposed to strengthen people-to-people exchanges in the spirit of mutual learning.
The BRICS bloc brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.
PTI
