On September 10, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced that President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12-13 at the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi. It will also be Xi’s first visit to India since October 2019.
Previewing the summit, the Xinhua News Agency released two important feature articles on September 10 and 11 recapping Xi’s consistent support for the BRICS initiative and for the Global South and the reform of global governance more generally.
According to the first article: “Over the past two decades, BRICS has grown into a major platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, with an ever-expanding role in global affairs.
“At the upcoming summit, Xi will join other leaders in charting a new course for the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation, pooling the collective strength of the Global South and contributing stability and positive momentum to a world undergoing profound changes.”
Outlining Xi’s pivotal role in the development of BRICS, it recalls that when, in March 2013, Xi attended the fifth BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa, it was his first international summit as Chinese president.
On that occasion, Xi called on BRICS countries to move toward the goal of integrated markets, a multi-tiered financial network, connectivity by land, air and sea, and greater cultural exchanges.
Two years later, at the seventh BRICS Summit held in Ufa, Russia, Xi called for building a partnership for world peace, common development, inter-civilisation dialogue and more effective global economic governance.
When China was the BRICS chair in 2017, Xi proposed the “BRICS Plus” cooperation model at the ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen, calling for getting more emerging markets and developing countries involved in the group’s concerted endeavours for cooperation and mutual benefits.
In a further article published the next day, Xinhua notes that Xi Jinping is heading to New Delhi for this year’s BRICS gathering just over a week after he took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.
“The two back-to-back multilateral engagements converge on a single, defining theme: galvanising solidarity and cooperation across the Global South.
“This year,” the article continues, “marks the 25th founding anniversary of the SCO and the 20th anniversary of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, both milestone occasions.
“Riding the wave of the collective rise of the Global South, BRICS and the SCO have over the years expanded their membership and broadened their networks of partners. Their members jointly account for more than half of the world’s population and about 30 percent of the global economy. This illustrates the fact that the two groupings have evolved into major platforms for Global South cooperation.
“As the Global South rises, it deserves a bigger say in global affairs. Last year’s SCO Tianjin summit witnessed Xi’s proposal of the Global Governance Initiative, a major proposition of China to advance a more just and equitable global governance system.
“At the heart of this vision is the conviction that every country has a place and an equal role to play in global governance.
“Xi has long argued that international affairs should not be dictated by those with more muscles. ‘World affairs should be discussed by all, and international norms should be set by all,’ he said in Bishkek last week. ‘The domination of international affairs by a few is an injustice left over from history, and global governance dictated by one, a few or a bloc of countries is not true multilateralism.’
“‘As an important part of a multipolar world and a key driving force behind it, the Global South countries ought to have greater representation and voice in international affairs,’ Xi said.”
The article concludes by pointing out: “Beyond the SCO and BRICS, China has also promoted cooperation and greater representation for the Global South through frameworks such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China-ASEAN summit.
“Xi has said on many occasions that China has always been a member of the Global South and will always belong to the developing world.
“‘No matter how the international landscape evolves, we in China will always keep the Global South in our heart, and maintain our roots in the Global South,’” he once said.
The following articles were originally published by the Xinhua News Agency.
Xinhua Headlines: Xi to attend New Delhi summit to boost greater BRICS cooperation
- “It is for our shared pursuit and for the overarching trend of peace and development that we BRICS countries have come together,” Chinese President Xi Jinping has said.
- Today, the BRICS has expanded to 11 member countries and 10 partner countries, becoming a force for advancing a multipolar world and greater democracy in international relations.
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from Sept. 12 to 13, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Thursday.
Over the past two decades, BRICS has grown into a major platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, with an ever-expanding role in global affairs.
China, as a staunch supporter and active participant in BRICS, has consistently upheld the BRICS Spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, working with its partners to turn shared aspirations into practical cooperation and advance common development.
At the upcoming summit, Xi will join other leaders in charting a new course for the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation, pooling the collective strength of the Global South and contributing stability and positive momentum to a world undergoing profound changes.
Building stronger BRICS
In March 2013, Xi attended the fifth BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa. It was his first international summit as Chinese president.
“We, the five BRICS countries, come from four different continents. The grand goal of fostering partnership for common development and the noble cause of promoting democracy in international relations and advancing peace and development of mankind have brought us together,” he said in a keynote speech at the summit.
Xi called on BRICS countries to move toward the goal of integrated markets, multi-tiered financial network, connectivity by land, air and sea, and greater cultural exchanges.
Two years later, at the seventh BRICS Summit held in Ufa, Russia, Xi called for building a partnership for world peace, common development, inter-civilization dialogue and more effective global economic governance.
When China was the BRICS chair back in 2017, Xi proposed the “BRICS Plus” cooperation model at the ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen, calling for getting more emerging markets and developing countries involved in the group’s concerted endeavors for cooperation and mutual benefits.
In October 2024, the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, marked the first BRICS leaders’ offline summit since the group’s expansion. “It is for our shared pursuit and for the overarching trend of peace and development that we BRICS countries have come together,” Xi said in a speech at the summit.
Building on this vision, Xi proposed building a BRICS committed to peace, innovation, green development, justice and closer people-to-people exchanges.
Xi has advanced BRICS cooperation through “highly constructive proposals,” bringing more Global South countries that share a vision of a multipolar world into dialogue and practical cooperation, thereby strengthening the appeal and influence of BRICS, said Alexander Gusev, director of Russia’s Institute for Strategic Planning and Forecasting.
Today, the BRICS has expanded to 11 member countries and 10 partner countries, becoming a force for advancing a multipolar world and greater democracy in international relations.
BRICS countries account for nearly half of the world’s population, around 30 percent of the global economy and one-fifth of global trade.
“China seeks the greatest common ground for cooperation through equal dialogue, builds consensus around shared interests, and continuously strengthens the cohesion and capacity for action of BRICS cooperation,” said Mohamed Hussein, first deputy head of Egypt’s State Information Service.
BRICS is a platform with great potential while strengths and differences among its members are an asset, said Marcos Cordeiro Pires, a professor of political and economic sciences at the Sao Paulo State University.
In a world undergoing profound changes, the BRICS is amplifying the voices of Global South countries in demands for better governance, more security and the right to development, said Pires.
BRICS in action
At Xiamen Port in southeast China’s Fujian Province, a major hub for international shipping, the BRICS Go-Global Express officially kicked off in late July, providing a new bridge for Chinese companies to expand into BRICS markets abroad.
The inaugural event focused on Nigeria, which officially became a BRICS partner country last year. Hassan Mohammed, commissioner of the Trade Division at the Consulate General of Nigeria in Shanghai, said the BRICS Plus framework had created more platforms for exchanges and brought the two countries closer together.
At the 12th BRICS Summit in November 2020, Xi announced China’s plan to set up a BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution innovation center in Xiamen.
Since its establishment, the center has facilitated more than 100 cooperation projects, with a total investment of over 62 billion yuan (9.24 billion U.S. dollars). It has also launched a scholarship for emerging industries, helping BRICS countries cultivate talent across a range of fields, including industry and communications.
Delivering results has been central to the BRICS agenda. As Xi once put it, “BRICS is not a talking shop, but a task force that gets things done.”
By the end of 2025, the New Development Bank, whose establishment Xi personally championed, had approved 139 projects with total financing of about 43 billion dollars, bringing tangible benefits to people in Global South countries through green energy, transport infrastructure and access to clean drinking water.
In 2021, Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Five years on, the initiative is complementing and reinforcing the BRICS cooperation mechanism, bringing development further to the forefront of the international agenda.
China has since launched initiatives to expand BRICS cooperation in areas including deep-sea resources, the digital economy, green industries and clean energy. It has also proposed new programs in artificial intelligence and digital education.
BRICS and the Global Development Initiative have increasingly complemented and reinforced each other, said Siti Mutiah Setiawati, a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia.
Together, they have brought greater attention to development on the international agenda, and helped translate shared aspirations into practical outcomes for emerging markets and developing countries, she said.
Advancing governance reform
In September last year, Xi proposed the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) at the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” Meeting in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.
Seven days later, when addressing a virtual BRICS Summit, Xi said the GGI “is aimed at galvanizing joint global action for a more just and equitable global governance system.”
BRICS countries are increasingly finding common ground on issues ranging from development and a more multipolar world to global governance reform. At the 2024 BRICS Summit, Xi called for building the group into “a vanguard for advancing global governance reform.”
The GGI provides an important framework for BRICS to advance global governance reform, helping strengthen the UN-centered international system and make global governance more just, equitable and representative, said B. R. Deepak, professor of Chinese and China Studies at the Centre of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
This vision has also been reflected in Xi’s calls for greater cooperation among BRICS countries. At the “BRICS Plus” leaders’ dialogue in Kazan, Russia, Xi called on BRICS countries to become the main driving force for common development, play an active and leading role in the global economic governance reform, and make development the core of international economic and trade agenda.
At the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2018, Xi also called on BRICS countries to firmly support the multilateral trading regime, advance global economic governance reform and increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries.
Concrete actions have accompanied these calls on reforming major international financial institutions. BRICS countries have put forward clear positions on reforms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota system and the World Bank’s shareholding structure.
The Rio de Janeiro Declaration, adopted at the 17th BRICS Summit held last year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, stressed that further quota realignment in the IMF should increase the shares of emerging markets and developing economies.
As for the World Bank, the declaration called for “increased voice and representation of developing countries, underpinned by a shareholding realignment that corrects their historic underrepresentation.”
“The greatest contribution of BRICS over the last two decades has been its role in changing the conversation about global political governance,” said Ronney Ncwadi, professor and director of the School of Economics, Development and Tourism at Nelson Mandela University.
“BRICS has demonstrated that emerging and developing economies are no longer just recipients of global rules, but are increasingly participating in shaping those rules,” said Ncwadi.
From Bishkek to New Delhi, Xi advocates Global South cooperation
BEIJING, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to New Delhi for this year’s BRICS gathering just over a week after he took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.
The two back-to-back multilateral engagements converge on a single, defining theme: galvanizing solidarity and cooperation across the Global South.
Expanding family
The SCO “takes root in the Global South, its heart beats with the Global South, and it is an important pillar of South-South cooperation,” Xi said at the Bishkek summit concluded on Tuesday last week, calling on the SCO to “promote the development and rise of the Global South through the SCO Wisdom.”
The Chinese leader is expected to put forward further proposals on Global South cooperation at the upcoming BRICS summit, as he has noted that the BRICS is “standing at the forefront of the Global South.”
This year marks the 25th founding anniversary of the SCO and the 20th anniversary of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, both milestone occasions.
Riding the wave of the collective rise of the Global South, BRICS and the SCO have over the years expanded their membership and broadened their networks of developing partners. Their members jointly account for more than half of the world’s population and about 30 percent of the global economy. This illustrates the fact that the two groupings have evolved into major platforms for Global South cooperation.
Xi has not only joined other leaders of member countries in pushing for their respective expansions, but also put forward new ideas and initiatives like the “BRICS Plus” cooperation approach and the building of an SCO community with a shared future, opening up new vistas for win-win cooperation among Global South countries.
“China has consistently provided a clear vision and momentum for BRICS and the SCO, both conceptually and practically,” said Humprey Arnaldo Russel, head of the ASEAN-China Research Center at the University of Indonesia.
“It transformed BRICS from a relatively exclusive grouping into a broader platform for cooperation among developing countries and the wider Global South,” he added.
Development first
At the SCO summit last week, Xi called on countries to “stay committed to putting development first, and open up the prospects for shared prosperity.”
Amid a turbulent and rapidly changing international landscape, development still faces severe challenges, and the road to prosperity for the Global South will not be straight.
“The Global South emerges for development and prospers through development. We should make ourselves the main driving force for common development,” Xi said during the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
For Xi, development has always been a priority. He sees it as “the master key to solving all problems,” and has consistently called for countries worldwide to jointly pursue development and prosperity.
Xi has stressed repeatedly that no one should be left behind in the fight against poverty in China, and has led a formidable campaign that ended extreme poverty nationwide, which was hailed as “the greatest anti-poverty achievement in history.”
His “leaving-no-one-behind” conviction also extends to his efforts to support poverty reduction and spur development across the Global South. “On the path to modernization, no one, and no country, should be left behind,” Xi said.
Last week in Bishkek, Xi called for consolidating cooperation in both traditional and emerging fields, from trade, investment, connectivity and energy to artificial intelligence (AI), the digital economy and green industries.
Responding to the Global South’s aspirations for common development and modernization, Xi has proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which marks its fifth anniversary this year.
In the last five years, the GDI has mobilized more than 23 billion U.S. dollars, provided support for over 1,800 “small and beautiful” livelihood projects, and sponsored training programs for more than 200,000 people in different professions.
Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of the Delovoy Kazakhstan newspaper, said: “Under Xi’s leadership, the concept of development has acquired a new international dimension and become part of a broader vision for humanity’s shared future.”
Greater voice
As the Global South rises, it deserves a bigger say in global affairs.
Last year’s SCO Tianjin summit witnessed Xi’s proposal of the Global Governance Initiative, a major proposition of China to advance a more just and equitable global governance system.
At the heart of this vision is the conviction that every country has a place and an equal role to play in global governance.
Xi has long argued that international affairs should not be dictated by those with more muscles. “World affairs should be discussed by all, and international norms should be set by all,” he said in Bishkek last week. “The domination of international affairs by a few is an injustice left over from history, and global governance dictated by one, a few or a bloc of countries is not true multilateralism.”
“As an important part of a multipolar world and a key driving force behind it, the Global South countries ought to have greater representation and voice in international affairs,” Xi said.
Over the years, the SCO and BRICS have grown into vital venues for Global South countries to articulate their interests, coordinate their positions and strengthen their collective influence.
Their growing role can be seen in political coordination. The two groupings have issued statements on international and regional hotspot issues. In March this year, for example, SCO member states issued a statement expressing grave concern over developments in the Middle East and the strikes on Iran.
Xi has also pushed for improving global economic and financial governance. In 2014, Xi and other BRICS leaders formally signed an agreement establishing the New Development Bank, creating a new channel for financing infrastructure and sustainable development in emerging markets and developing countries.
At the SCO Bishkek summit, the members reaffirmed the importance of establishing the SCO Development Bank.
Now the push for a greater say is extending into emerging areas that will shape the future. In July this year, Xi announced the creation of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, and called for joint efforts to build a just and equitable system of global AI governance.
“We must carry out extensive international cooperation and help Global South countries with capacity building to bridge the AI and digital divides, promote sustainable development, and prevent creating new historical injustice in AI,” Xi said.
Beyond the SCO and BRICS, China has also promoted cooperation and greater representation for the Global South through frameworks such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China-ASEAN summit.
Xi has said on many occasions that China has always been a member of the Global South and will always belong to the developing world.
“No matter how the international landscape evolves, we in China will always keep the Global South in our heart, and maintain our roots in the Global South,” he once said.
