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BEIJING, Sept. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

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