Johannesburg has made history. The city hosted the 15th BRICS Summit, where the leaders of China and Africa met face-to-face for the first time in five years. An important meeting that opens new perspectives for BRICS, the Global South and development in the world.

Under China’s presidency last year, BRICS launched an enlargement process. In Johannesburg, this commitment bore fruit: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran were invited to join the cooperative mechanism as formal members.

This expansion is historic in its scale, as it marks a new starting point for BRICS cooperation. Now that the format has increased from five to eleven members, BRICS now has a better geographical representation and opens up new opportunities for cooperation. This is a strong impetus given not only to strengthening the multipolarity of the world and democratisation of international relations, but also to promoting equality in global governance.

The BRICS mechanism, born out of the collective emergence of emerging markets and developing countries, is today an important platform for South-South cooperation. Its strengthening has been widely welcomed by the international community. With the presence of more than 60 developing country leaders in Johannesburg, the BRICS mechanism has demonstrated the determination and solidarity momentum of the Global South.

Faced with the transformations and challenges that the world is experiencing, the countries of the South seek for solidarity and development. With its enlargement, BRICS sets an important milestone in cooperation among developing countries. From now on, the Global South sees its representation and voice in global governance is strengthened and will work for development with greater unity and more confidence.

As President Xi Jinping noted, China shares the same ideals and destiny with other developing countries. It has been a member of the developing world, remains so today and will always be so.

These words find a perfect illustration in China-Africa cooperation. In the past ten years, China has participated in the construction of more than 6,000 kilometres of railways, more than 6,000 kilometres of roads and more than 80 major electricity facilities on the African continent. Through these concrete actions, it demonstrates that it is a trusted friend of Africa, a fellow traveller of the continent on the path of modernisation.

On the occasion of the BRICS Plus Dialogue, China announced the establishment of a special fund dedicated to the Global Development Initiative to ensure that no country is left behind in the modernisation process. During the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue, it launched the Initiative to Support African Industrialisation, the Programme to Promote the Modernisation of African Agriculture. Many African leaders, for their part, have expressed strong support for the Global Development Initiative. Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilisation Initiative, as well as committed to promoting quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. Together, China and Africa have reaffirmed their firm resolve to move forward hand in hand on the path of modernisation.

In the future, the BRICS countries will work closely with other developing countries to solve problems and move towards modernisation. By joining hands, they can write more beautiful pages in the annals of human progress and make greater contributions to a united, peaceful and prosperous world, as reported by
CGTN, a partner of TV BRICS.

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IStock