Xi Jinping Delivers a Speech at the First Session of the Eighteenth Meeting of BRICS Leaders

Xinhua News Agency, New Delhi, September 12. Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the firststage meeting of the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting, reviewing the 20year development of BRICS cooperation and putting forward proposals on the direction of cooperation in the next stage. Xi Jinping said that the BRICS mechanism has grown into an important platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries. Over the past 20 years, BRICS countries have made progress in areas such as independence and selfreliance, responding to international crises, promoting expansion, and deepening economic, trade, and scientific and technological cooperation, and are moving toward a higherquality stage of “greater BRICS cooperation.” He pointed out that the current international situation is undergoing complex changes, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, and global development, peace, security, and governance face multiple challenges. BRICS countries should play a greater role in innovative development, safeguarding peace, promoting mutual learning among civilizations, and improving global governance, support multilateralism and the authority of the United Nations, and promote the international order to develop in a more just and reasonable direction.