BRICS cooperation mechanism

BRIC was an acronym coined by the US Goldman Sachs in 2003 to call the four promising emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Foreign ministers of these four countries had their first meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September 2006, and this became an annual event afterwards. In June 2009, the state leaders of the BRIC countries held a formal meeting in Russia, thus starting their partnership under the BRIC mechanism. With the formal inclusion of South Africa in December 2010, the group became the BRICS.

The BRICS mechanism has seen improvements with pragmatic cooperation in dozens of fields such as economy and trade, finance and banking, education, science and technology, culture and think-tanks. Under the inter-governmental mechanism there are summits of state leaders, ministerial meetings, seminars and forums, as well as multi-layer supportive mechanisms such as the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, the Business Council, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the New Development Bank, and the Think-tank Symposiums.

During the 2017 BRICS Xiamen Summit, Xi Jinping proposed the "BRICS Plus" approach to cooperation. He suggested more dialogs between BRICS countries and other developing countries and their organizations to build extensive partnerships, make more friends, and turn BRICS into a most influential platform for South-South cooperation. By early 2018, the BRICS countries had set up some 60 mechanisms for cooperation, covering economy and trade, finance, agriculture, education, science and technology, culture and think-tanks.

The BRICS cooperation has broken the world economic configuration that was long dominated by developed countries, and offers a practical approach for economic cooperation among developing countries for common development. This serves as a strong leverage on the reform and transformation of the international order, and makes helpful exploration for building a new type of international relations.

金磚國家合作機制

“金磚國家”最初是指巴西、俄羅斯、印度和中國四個成長前景看好的新興市場國家。這一概念由美國高盛公司于2003年提出。2006年9月，上述四國外長在聯合國大會期間舉行首次外長會晤，此后每年依例舉行。2009年6月，“金磚四國”領導人在俄羅斯舉行首次正式會晤，金磚國家合作機制正式啟動。2010年12月，南非正式加入后，這一合作機制由最初的“金磚四國”變為“金磚五國”。

金磚合作機制建設伴隨著務實合作不斷健全完善。金磚國家在經貿、財金、教育、科技、文化、智庫等數十個領域開展務實合作，形成了以首腦峰會為核心，以部長級會議為支撐，以研討會、論壇等形式為輔助的國家間合作機制；建立了包括金磚國家銀行合作機制、工商理事會、外匯應急儲備基金和金磚國家新開發銀行、智庫合作機制等在內的多層次合作保障、支持機制。

在2017年金磚國家領導人廈門會晤期間，習近平提出了“金磚+磚概念，意在通過金磚國家同其他發展中大國和發展中國家組織進行對話，建立更廣泛的伙伴關系，擴大金磚的“朋友圈”，把金磚合作打造成為當今世界最有影響力的南南合作平臺。截至2018年初，金磚國家已經建立60多項合作機制，涵蓋經貿、金融、農業、教育、科技、文化、智庫等多個領域。

金磚國家合作打破了世界經濟由發達國家長久主導的格局，給發展中國家的經濟合作和共同發展開辟了可行之路，有力撬動了國際秩序的轉型與改革，也為建立新型國際關系進行了有益探索。