Foreign ministers of the BRICS countries gathered in Rio de Janeiro on Friday to discuss arrangements for the bloc's 11th summit, which will take place in November in Brazil's capital, Brasilia. CGTN's Lucrecia Franco has more.

Brazil will be hosting a BRICS summit for a third time. Foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa attended a meeting in Rio to prepare the ground for the leader's summit later this year. The key issues: global governance, international security, fighting terrorism in all its forms and helping solve global and regional conflicts, including the situation in Venezuela. Brazil, which is the BRICS pro-tempore president, does not agree with China and Russia's policy of non-intervention in Venezuela.

ERNESTO ARAUJO BRAZILIAN FOREIGN MINISTER "We can't ignore a cry for liberty that is coming from the Venezuelan people. Brazil has heard that cry and I make an appeal to all of you to also hear it."

But the bloc is moving forward on many other issues. The opening in Sao Paulo of a regional office of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), for example, is expected to happen this year. Prior to this meeting, the Brazilian and Chinese foreign ministers, Ernesto Araujo and Wang Yi, met in Brasilia. They praised the growth in bilateral trade between the two nations. It surpassed one hundred billion dollars in 2018. Wang said Brazil's president will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before the summit.

WANG YI CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER "We are already welcoming the visit of President Jair Bolsonaro in October this year and President Xi Jinping is extremely interested in coming to the BRICS summit in Brazil."

This will be the first time both presidents will hold an official bilateral meeting since the informal BRICS gathering that took place on the sidelines of G20 summit last month in Osaka, Japan.

LUCRECIA FRANCO RIO DE JANEIRO "Some expected friction between some BRICS countries after Brazil's pro-Trump president, Jair Bolsonaro, took office. Brazil's foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, is an avowed fan of Trump's, too, and a critic of China. But observers say the absence of public discord at this meeting indicates the priority remains cooperation and pragmatism will prevail over politics. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro."