China on Tuesday backed proposals to extend the BRICS club of large emerging economies, which is attempting to exert its political and economic dominance in the world arena.
The BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are meeting over three days, representing a fourth of the world economy, and interest in joining the organization has increased.
President Xi Jinping stated that hegemonism is not in China’s DNA in a speech read on his behalf by Commerce Minister Wang Wentao at the commencement of the BRICS meeting in South Africa.
He stated that the Johannesburg meetings were not intended to ask countries to take sides or create bloc confrontations but rather to expand the architect of peace and development.
“Whatever resistance there may be, BRICS, a positive and stable force for goodwill, will continue to grow”, he stated.
“We will strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership, actively pursue membership expansion, and help make the international order more just and equitable”, he added.
China is the most powerful economy in the BRICS, and Xi’s state visit to South Africa, his second international tour this year, comes as Beijing seeks to rapidly expand the group’s membership.
The BRICS nations, which represent 40 percent of the world’s population and democratic and autocratic regimes with various levels of economic growth, have a similar aim for a global order that better reflects their interests and expanding weight.
BRICS is also pushing for its development bank to compete with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as plans to minimize the usage of the US dollar in global trade.
The theme of its 15th summit is ‘BRICS and Africa’, and it comes as the continent resurfaces as a resurgent diplomatic battleground, with the US, Russia, and China vying for influence.
The group began with four countries in 2009, but South Africa was added the following year.
Officials believe more than 40 countries from the Global South, a broad phrase for those outside the West, have expressed interest in joining.
