The BRICS Summit ended in Brazil's capital Brasilia. This year has been bad for the whole world. Negative impacts brought by the US-launched trade war against China have been spreading. Some Western media outlets have cast doubt on the BRICS meeting, claiming that BRICS cooperation is declining.
From our perspective, the situation is exactly the opposite.
BRICS cooperation is groundbreaking. It has provided a new angle for the five countries to re-recognize the world as well as themselves, and has inspired them to explore their paths of participation in international cooperation.
In the past, developing countries had to go through the West to understand the world and go global. But BRICS cooperation has reminded people that there is a huge world outside the West. This has a far-reaching significance.
BRICS countries have generally suffered from an economic slowdown. So have most of the world. The long-term factors driving BRICS' economic growth have remained unchanged, and the dynamic mechanisms of BRICS countries as emerging markets have remained unchanged. Their influence in regions and the world has not diminished. They are still on the frontline of world development and changes.
Global governance is facing enormous challenges brought about by protectionism. The US is the greatest source, followed by the West. BRICS countries do attach great importance to their ties with the US and other Western countries, but such relations can only provide limited dynamic augment.
In particular, facing Washington which advocates "America First," BRICS countries cannot bind their development with cooperation with the US, which is unrealistic and even dangerous.
BRICS is a group of the world's largest emerging markets. By expanding cooperation, the five countries are increasing impetus for each other's development. It is a revolutionary exploration, which not only brings specific benefits, but also strengthens strategic initiatives for all BRICS countries.
BRICS members have differences in geographical features, size and social governance. Some Westerners believe these dissimilarities are stumbling blocks to cooperation. Their understanding of cooperation is outdated. Just as the internet is changing economic activities, globalization is changing conditions, methods and even the purpose of cooperation among countries.
Past cooperation in the West was mostly driven by geopolitics and then served geopolitical goals. But BRICS' greatest goal is development, offering the members unlimited space for cooperation.
Development is the most appealing theme of the contemporary era, and strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation is an exploration with inexhaustible driving forces. Despite their distance from each other, BRICS members hold a summit every year and develop an increasing number of cooperation projects, including the New Development Bank.
In contrast, although the US proposed the Indo-Pacific Strategy, and meets with Japan, Australia and India annually, the "free and open Indo-Pacific" still sounds like an unrealistic slogan after more than two years, as it is driven by US geopolitical needs.
BRICS should focus on two things: self-development and cooperation. If the five members succeed both ways, the world will be changed. It seems BRICS has made a good start in both development and cooperation. New ideas have already been formed. As long as BRICS countries are persistent and determined, the group's influence will certainly be on the rise.
It is hoped that BRICS will open up more areas of cooperation and form more long-term cooperation mechanisms. BRICS countries should have more say in the future world. Will the world become fairer and more balanced? The group's performance is crucial.
