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BRICS delegates in Durban.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has said that the Durban Summit has sent a loud and clear message of solidarity within the group of five to the world.
Yi said on Sunday in Beijing, that the fifth BRICS meet has injected fresh impetus into the BRICS bloc.
The meeting, held from Tuesday to Wednesday, in the South African port city of Durban, was attended by the newly sworn-in Chinese President.
At the summit, President Xi Jinping expounded on China’s view on the future direction of BRICS cooperation, Yi said.
Xi also called on the BRICS to set the international development agenda, and coordinate their macroeconomic policies, the Chinese Foreign Minister asserted.
BRICS need an integrated market for trade and investment, financial and monetary affairs, transportation links, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges, the top Chinese diplomat said.
In Durban, Russian President Vladimir Putin also chose to highlight the growing clout of BRICS.
“In Africa people talk about the ‘big five’ – the five biggest animals on the African continent. BRICS is also made up of five countries, and as I just said, we make a very visible contribution to the global economy,” said Putin during the Summit.
The BRICS leaders ratified two pacts covering a BRICS Multilateral Infrastructure Co-financing Agreement for Africa, and a BRICS Multilateral Cooperation and Co-financing Agreement for Sustainable Development on Wednesday.
One of the most crucial achievements of this year’s summit was the formation of a new 25-member BRICS Business Council comprised of five members from each of the member nations.
BRICS have reached broad consensus during the Durban meet on jointly dealing with reforming the international monetary and financial systems, added the Chinese Foreign Minister.
The Durban declaration has once again reiterated the BRICS call for greater reforms at the IMF.
“We call for the reform of International Financial Institutions to make them more representative and to reflect the growing weight of BRICS and other developing countries. We remain concerned with the slow pace of the reform of the IMF,” said the e-Thekwini Declaration at the end of the Summit.
The IMF has said on Friday that it is following with “great interest” the recent announcement by leaders of BRICS to establish a development bank.
Unlike the World Bank, The IMF, however, stopped short of welcoming the plan. “On the development bank, we’re following this initiative with great interest,” IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said at his weekly news conference at the IMF headquarters in Washington.
With inputs from Xinhua
