Entering its 15th year, the emerging-market bloc BRICS that groups Brazil, 
Russia, India, China and South Africa once again demonstrated that the member 
states can always come together to build up new consensus for more dynamic 
cooperation.

Under the theme of "Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and 
consensus," the 13th summit via video link on Thursday comes at a time when the 
world is facing a pandemic, an increasingly uneven global economic recovery, as 
well as a torrent of rising non-conventional global security challenges.

China, which has continued to inject impetus into BRICS cooperation and will 
take over the BRICS chairmanship in 2022, set a good example for international 
vaccine cooperation at Thursday's summit by announcing to donate 100 million 
more COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.

BRICS to fight against the pandemic

In the face of the pandemic, BRICS countries have actively maintained 
information exchange and cooperation and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who 
attended and delivered a speech at the BRICS summit for the ninth consecutive 
year, restressed the significance of vaccine cooperation. 

Noting that China has promised to provide 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 
the world throughout this year and offer $100 million to COVAX, Xi called on 
the BRICS members to contribute to promoting fair and equitable distribution of 
vaccines worldwide. 

Since Xi announced making China's COVID-19 vaccines a public good at the 73rd 
session of the World Health Assembly last May, the country has delivered about 
800 million vaccine doses to more than 100 nations as of August. They are 
mostly developing countries, according to data from the Chinese Foreign 
Ministry. 

He also highlighted the practical cooperation in joint vaccine research and 
development, joint production and mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccinations, 
as well as launching the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Center online 
as soon as possible. 

In May, China announced the establishment of a national center as part of the 
center. Boosting the vaccine R&D among BRICS nations, the center reinforces 
cooperation on R&D and the trial of the vaccines, factory construction, and 
cooperation on vaccine production, authorization and recognition among the five 
countries. 

BRICS to promote common development in economy 

Economic and trade cooperation is one of the major topics for BRICS countries. 
According to China's Ministry of Commerce, BRICS countries account for 42 
percent of the world's population, 24 percent of the global economy, 18 percent 
of global trade in goods, 13 percent of global trade in services and 25 percent 
of global foreign investment. 

In this regard, China proposed to host a high-level BRICS meeting on climate 
change and a BRICS forum on big data for sustainable development. 

Xi also stressed the significance of the New Development Bank and the BRICS 
Partnership on the New Industrial Revolution innovation center. 

The center was launched in Xiamen in December last year. At the center's 
inauguration ceremony on Tuesday, 28 projects with a total investment of over 
13.4 billion yuan (about 2.07 billion U.S. dollars) were inked by BRICS 
enterprises. 

BRICS to uphold true multilateralism, justice and fairness 

Regional peace and stability, biosecurity and counter-terrorism and cyber 
security have also been the keywords in BRICS cooperation during recent years.

"We need to make good use of BRICS mechanisms such as the meeting of foreign 
ministers and the meeting of high representatives for security, better 
coordinate our position on major international and regional issues, and send 
out an even bigger, collective voice of BRICS countries," Xi said at the 
summit. 

At the BRICS Meeting of National Security Advisors held last month, the member 
countries reached the counter-terrorism action plan, and in July, they agreed 
to contribute more to the international fight against terrorism at the 6th 
virtual meeting of the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group. 

A declaration was adopted at the meeting, reiterating the BRICS commitment to 
enhancing cooperation under political and security, economic and financial, and 
cultural and people-to-people exchanges. 

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-09/China-leads-global-vaccine-cooperation-as-BRICS-enters-the-15th-year-13qiPhQKMs8/index.html


Source: CGTN