China will donate an additional 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday at the 13th BRICS summit.

China last month promised to provide 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world throughout this year and donate $100 million to COVAX, the global vaccine sharing scheme initiated by the World Health Organization. The fund will mainly go to the distribution of vaccine doses to developing countries.

To date, the country has provided more than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations. The government will strive to fulfill the 2 billion vaccine doses pledge by the end of this year, Xi said while calling for strengthening international cooperation on vaccines in the spirit of equitable access for all.

At present, the coronavirus pandemic is still wreaking havoc around the world. As a result, the road to global recovery remains bumpy and tortuous, Xi said, calling for BRICS countries to step forward and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

"We need to promote global solidarity against COVID-19, join forces to tackle the pandemic, uphold a science-based approach to tracing its origins, and oppose politicization and stigmatization," he said.

"We need to enhance coordination in COVID prevention, control, boost the research, production and equitable distribution of vaccines as a global public good," he added.

He called on BRICS countries to strengthen public health cooperation in the spirit of solidarity, step up political responsibility, support each other's COVID response, and share relevant information and COVID control experience.

He said practical cooperation on vaccines is needed among BRICS countries, including joint research and production and mutual recognition of standards, and facilitate an early launch of the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center in virtual format.

He noted that it is also essential to strengthen cooperation on traditional medicine to develop more tools against the virus.