U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone Friday morning in what China has described as a candid, in-depth and extensive strategic communication and exchange on China-U.S. relations. What's changed in tone and in substance, compared to the previous call between the two presidents half a year ago?

Meanwhile, India hosted the 13th BRICS Summit virtually attended by leaders of participating nations. At the summit, China put forward five major proposals to strengthen BRICS cooperation. What have these five countries actually delivered this year?

For this edition of Dialogue, we have Cui Hongjian, director of the Department for European Studies at China Institute of International Studies; Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international affairs & security analyst; Josef Gregory Mahoney, professor of politics at East China Normal University; and Prof. M.D. Nalapat, vice-chair of the Advanced Research Group at Manipal University.