As the world has entered a new period of turbulence, BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on Wednesday vowed to deepen BRICS cooperation and speed up the group's expansion as their leaders attended the 15th BRICS summit.

'Development is not a privilege'

When addressing the summit in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged efforts to deepen business and financial cooperation, expand political and security cooperation, increase people-to-people exchanges and improve global governance.

"Development is an inalienable right of all countries, not a privilege of a few," said President Xi when addressing the summit in Johannesburg.

He noted that BRICS countries should be peers on the road of development and revitalization, oppose acts of "decoupling" and disrupting industrial and supply chains, as well as economic coercion, and focus on practical cooperation in such areas as the digital economy, green development, supply chain, among others.

Xi announced that China will set up a China-BRICS science and innovation incubation park for the new era.

Noting that the Cold War mentality is still haunting our world, Xi said attempts to seek absolute security at the expense of others will eventually backfire.

The Chinese president emphasized the need to tender good offices on hotspot issues, pushing for political settlement and lowering the temperature.

He pointed out that the Ukraine crisis has evolved to where it is today because of complex reasons. "What is pressing now is to encourage peace talks, promote de-escalation, end the fighting, and realize peace. No one should add fuel to the fire to worsen the situation."

According to Xi, the BRICS countries have agreed to launch the artificial intelligence (AI) study group and expand AI cooperation.

BRICS countries need to jointly fend off risks and develop AI governance frameworks and standards with broad-based consensus so as to make AI technologies more secure, reliable, controllable and equitable, he added.

"Human history will not end with a particular civilization or system," said Xi, and he called on BRICS countries to champion the spirit of inclusiveness, advocate peaceful coexistence and harmony between civilizations, and promote respect for all countries in independently choosing their modernization paths.

China has proposed that BRICS countries expand cooperation on education, enhance the role of the BRICS alliance for vocational education, explore and set up a cooperation mechanism on digital education and foster a paradigm of all-round cooperation on education, he added.

In terms of global governance, Xi highlighted that strengthening global governance is the right choice if the international community intends to share development opportunities and tackle global challenges.

"International rules must be written and upheld jointly by all countries based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, rather than dictated by those with the strongest muscles or the loudest voice," Xi said, adding that ganging up to form exclusive groups and packaging their own rules as international norms are even more unacceptable.

BRICS expansion

Xi also called for the expansion of the BRICS and efforts to promote more just and reasonable global governance.

"We need to act on the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation to bring more countries into the BRICS family so as to pool our wisdom and strength to make global governance more just and equitable," said Xi.

Xi's words were echoed by BRICS leaders such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Reiterating Xi's words that "Development is not a privilege of a few," Ramaphosa stressed that the BRICS group should remain united and also play a key role in working to stabilize the world.

He also highlighted that new world realities call for a fundamental reform of the institutions of global governance so that they can be more representative and better able to respond to challenges.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country supports the expansion of BRICS to include new nations and is ready to move forward on the issue with consensus. "We must make our societies future-ready to make BRICS future-ready," Modi said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva focused on decolonizing economies and paying more attention to the climate crisis.

He also believed that a common currency used by BRICS countries in commercial transactions would reduce their vulnerabilities.

Speaking via video stream, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized "ongoing neocolonialism" and countries that promote their own hegemony.

He also announced that Moscow would use its chairmanship of BRICS next year to strengthen the group's role in the world and would host a summit in the city of Kazan in October 2024.

Voice from BRICS youth

Young people across the BRICS member states have also called for the establishment of a BRICS Youth Council during the 15th BRICS Summit.

Addressing the summit on Wednesday, National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) Chairperson Asanda Luwaca said the recent 9th BRICS Youth Summit reached a consensus on the establishment of a youth council.

Noting that young people make up the largest proportion of the population of each of the BRICS countries, Luwaca emphasized that the voices and views of the youth are critical as nations forge a post-pandemic society in the highest decision-making forums.

"We believe that the BRICS countries in general and youth in particular should use their collective strengths to prioritize the development paradigm, using this as a guiding principle for our work as we continue the intra-BRICS cooperation across areas such as trade, education, skills development and training, economic participation and transformation, health and well-being, and social cohesion," she said.