"Big BRICS" adds color to global governance, Scholars Roundtable | The five countries will hold their first summit after joining

In October this year, Russia will host the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, which will be the first summit held after Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia became new formal members of the BRICS. With the expansion as a new starting point, the BRICS mechanism has entered a new era of "Greater BRICS Cooperation".

Against this background, the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and the Fudan Development Institute jointly hosted a seminar in Shanghai yesterday. Experts and scholars from Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian and Yunnan gathered together to express their views on the theme of "'Greater BRICS Cooperation' and an Equal and Orderly Multipolar World", and to make prospects from different perspectives of countries and fields on issues such as the temporal and spatial background and environmental variables of the "Greater BRICS Cooperation" in the new era, the key topics and expected outcomes of the BRICS Kazan Summit, etc.

This year marks the beginning of the historic expansion of the BRICS mechanism. The expansion of the BRICS mechanism fully demonstrates the vitality, appeal and strategic value of the mechanism in international affairs. According to Russia, the rotating chair of the BRICS this year, there are about 30 countries that hope to join this cooperation mechanism.

Scholars attending the conference believe that the world is currently entering a new period of turbulence and change, and the BRICS countries are an important force in shaping the international landscape. The expansion is a milestone in the development of the BRICS mechanism, injecting new connotations into BRICS cooperation.

First, the members are new. The new members are all Asian and African countries, which are the most representative emerging markets and developing countries in the world today. The transformation of the "BRICS Five" into the "BRICS Ten" brings about scale advantages, and the "Greater BRICS Cooperation" has also come into being.

Second, it has a new identity. The BRICS cooperation mechanism was born in the historical tide of the collective rise of emerging market countries and developing countries, representing the direction of world multipolarization, economic globalization, and democratization of international relations. After the expansion, the "Greater BRICS" platform will better establish connections with the "Global South" countries, and its positioning in connecting with the needs of the "Global South" will be further highlighted.

Third, the agenda is new. The addition of new members brings new resources and new markets to the BRICS, and also enhances the comparative advantages of BRICS cooperation. This is conducive to the BRICS countries to give full play to their respective advantages, revitalize the existing cooperation stock, and stimulate new cooperation potential.

In addition, whether the existing BRICS cooperation mechanism needs "new adjustments" has also attracted attention. Some topics, such as whether to add a secretariat, how to build a partnership country model, and how to adapt the organizational structure to the new situation, have been discussed in the political and academic circles.

Some scholars have noticed that Middle Eastern countries account for the vast majority of the new members of BRICS.

Among them, Saudi Arabia is the seat of the secretariats of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran is the Islamic country with the largest population of Shiite Muslims, the United Arab Emirates is a member of the West Asian version of the "Quadrilateral Security Mechanism", and Egypt is the seat of the Arab League secretariat. The participation of the four countries can enable the BRICS to form a cooperation network in various regions from point to surface.

The participation of Middle Eastern countries has also injected momentum into BRICS practical cooperation. In addition to cooperation in oil and gas and other fields, Saudi Arabia and the UAE both have capital advantages, and Egypt and Iran have human resources and market advantages, which are conducive to BRICS countries strengthening cooperation in industrial chain, supply chain and technology chain.

Some scholars also pointed out that the "Greater BRICS Cooperation" has also brought a trend and a bright spot to global governance.

The challenges facing global governance are closely related to the fact that some countries advocate the establishment of unipolar hegemony, the construction of closed and exclusive "small circles", and the "use it when it suits you, and abandon it when it doesn't". Some countries also openly boycott UN Security Council resolutions, eroding the authority of multilateral mechanisms.

Therefore, China's advocacy of an equal and orderly world multipolarization is highly targeted at reality. After the expansion of BRICS, there are still about 30 countries lining up to join, which proves that the "BRICS spirit" with openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win as its core meets the needs of the times and has a strong appeal. The countries of the "global South" urgently need to build a more just and reasonable international order and pursue an equal and orderly world multipolarization.

For Russia, hosting the first BRICS summit is a heavy responsibility. The Russian side's hosting of the summit mainly reflects the following characteristics.

First, attach great importance to it. On the day of taking over the presidency, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a special speech to set the tone and ideas for the conference. Russia also plans to hold more than 200 events in multiple cities, an unprecedented scale.

Second, highlighting practical cooperation. Russia will discuss cooperation with BRICS countries on the theme of "strengthening multilateralism and promoting fair global development and security", with the focus on 13 political and security cooperation, 17 economic, trade and financial cooperation and 10 cultural cooperation.

The third is to emphasize mechanism building. The Russian side stated that it will make increasing internal integration and promoting the integration of new members into the BRICS mechanism the top priority this year, and will start studying the "model for establishing a new type of partnership among BRICS countries."

Fourth, the conference will highlight the "global south" color. The conference will highlight the keynotes of multilateralism and fair development, and emphasize speaking for the vast number of developing countries.

Several participants mentioned that building a new settlement mechanism, enhancing supply chain resilience, and deepening energy and food cooperation may become Russia's priority issues when hosting this summit.

It is reported that Russia plans to study with the BRICS countries the possibility of launching the "BRICS Bridge" platform to realize local currency settlement including digital currency.

Scholars believe that, on the one hand, in recent years, the BRICS countries have been constantly exploring cooperation in areas such as local currency settlement and cross-border payments, which has not only helped to improve the international financial payment system and promote the diversification of the global financial system, but also provided technical support for the subsequent construction of the BRICS payment system. On the other hand, we must also fully recognize the stable global status of the US dollar and deepen cooperation in the above areas in a gradual and economically realistic manner.

Other scholars pointed out that if the "Greater BRICS Cooperation" is to be stable and long-term, it must take the lead in the frontier and key areas of the new round of scientific and technological revolution. Member countries should consider carrying out artificial intelligence cooperation on the basis of the "China-BRICS New Era Science and Technology Innovation Incubator" that has been established, and formulate a BRICS framework for artificial intelligence governance as soon as possible.

In addition to the opportunities brought by the above-mentioned "Greater BRICS Cooperation", participants also discussed the challenges facing BRICS cooperation as it enters a new stage of development.

Challenges include: how to coordinate internal differences and seek common ground while reserving differences after the expansion; how to ensure the steady and long-term development of BRICS cooperation in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the economic and political crises faced by some member states; and how to deal with the division and restrictions of BRICS cooperation by external forces. These are all issues that the "Big BRICS" needs to face.