President Cyril Ramaphosa will lead South Africa’s participation in a two-day virtual 14th BRICS leaders’ summit to be hosted by Chinese President XI Jinping hosts starting on Thursday, the presidency said on Wednesday.
Xi is the 2022 chair of BRICS which was established as a forum of emerging economies.
BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which represent about 41% of the world’s population, 26% of the planet’s land mass across four continents, 25% of global gross domestic product and 20% of world trade, according to the presidency.
It said the grouping was committed to restructuring the global political, economic and financial architecture to be more inclusive, fair, representative and democratic, with meaningful and greater participation of developing countries.
“The leaders will focus on strengthening intra-BRICS relations and mutually beneficial cooperation across the BRICS pillars of cooperation, namely political and security, economic and finance, social, and people-to-people partnership,” the presidency said in a statement.
The summit will also receive reports from the BRICS National Security Advisors, the Chair of the BRICS Business Council, the Chair of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, and the President of the New Development Bank, the statement said.
The summit will also consider for adoption the BRICS 2022 Beijing Declaration which will emphasise the priorities of the Chinese chairmanship of the grouping this year, it added.
NM/jn/APA