Global role urged for Brics nations
Focus on peace, growth – China
CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged the Brics nations to preserve world peace and help promote global growth.
Wang made the remarks on Tuesday while hosting a meeting of foreign ministers from the Brics nations on the sidelines of a series of UN conferences. At the meeting, Wang said efforts by Brics countries in recent years had made a political solution to the crisis in Syria a real possibility. “We need to continue to be an advocate for using peaceful means, including dialogue and negotiation, to solve global hotspots,” he said.
The Chinese minister noted that with the support of the Brics nations, the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou was a success and provided ample direction for the future development of the world economy. He said the Brics should take the lead in implementing the agreements reached at the summit while remaining an engine for global economic growth.
Wang said the G20 Hangzhou summit had endorsed a 2030 action plan for sustainable development and proposed an initiative to support industrialisation in Africa and the world’s least developed countries. The Brics bloc should urge the developed world to deliver on its promises to developing countries, he sid. Wang added that the current system of global governance should better reflect the transformation of the world’ s political and economic landscape. He urged the group to guarantee broader representativeness and give a bigger say to emerging and developing countries.
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar said Brics should take a concerted stance against terror attacks and jointly tackle terrorism. He also called for an early approval of the Paris Agreement on climate change and a commitment to emission reduction targets.
Co-operation within the bloc should deepen, including establishing a Brics credit rating agency and an agricultural network, among others, he added.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane commended Brics for reaching historic achievements and implementing a sustainable development agenda. She further appealed for changes to the current system of global governance.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed Brics move towards establishing a fairer and more just international order, with better co-ordination on key political and economic issues.
While expressing hope for Brics members to work together in coping with global challenges, Lavrov also cited people-to-people exchanges, agriculture, railway transportation and tourism as among the sectors for further development this year within the bloc.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Jose Serra expects to see positive results from the Brics leaders’ summit to be held in mid-October in Goa, India, in bolstering economic partnerships between members.
Brics members needed to increase co-operation in such fields as innovation, digital economy, poverty reduction and public health, he added.
The Brazilian foreign minister also hopes that the Brics summit to be hosted by China next year will continue to promote exchange and dialogue.