On 31 October, Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Chen Daojiang published the authored article Leading the Great Unity of the Global South, Greater BRICS Cooperation Has Shown Great Achievements in Jamaica’s mainstream media “The Gleaner”. The full text of the article is as follows:
Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. This marked his first overseas visit after the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the first BRICS summit after its historic expansion. International community has closely followed up and spoken highly of China's important role as the backbone of BRICS cooperation and a core member of the Global South. Currently, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. The greater BRICS cooperation is leading the unity of the Global South, and is exerting an important and far-reaching historical impact.
BRICS countries are important representatives of the Global South. The BRICS cooperation mechanism was born out of the historical trend of the collective rise of emerging markets and developing countries. It bears the aspirations of the Global South for peaceful development, equity and justice, and influences the evolution of the international landscape and power balance. Since its establishment 18 years ago, BRICS has continued to develop. The BRICS member countries currently account for nearly half of the global population, more than 30% of the world economy, and more than 50% contribution to the global economic growth. It has become the “golden brand” and the most crucial platform for solidarity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries in the world.
BRICS cooperation builds consensus on the Global South. The current global governance system has failed to fully reflect the representation and voice of the Global South, restricting the international community from better responding to global challenges. Leaders of more than 30 countries gathered in Kazan for the BRICS Plus leaders' dialogue to express their views on strengthening multilateralism and promoting fair global development and security. All parties opposed bullying by hegemonic power and double standards, called for a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible and the reform of international economic and financial order. The desire of the Global South for peace, security, development, prosperity, equity and justice is clearly highlighted.
The expansion of the BRICS demonstrates openness and inclusiveness. The key to the continued growth of the BRICS mechanism lies in its openness and inclusiveness, its goal of win-win cooperation, and its pursuit of fairness and justice. The decision to invite more countries to become BRICS partners at the Kazan Summit makes another important progress in the development of BRICS. It marks that the BRICS mechanism has reached a new level. The representation of the BRICS cooperation mechanism has been further expanded, and its appeal, influence and vitality have been more prominent. The BRICS cooperation mechanism has grown into a strategic force for building a more just and rational global governance system.
China's contribution promotes the development of BRICS. Focusing on the evolution of international landscape and the trend of global development, President Xi Jinping profoundly expounded China's proposition of promoting the high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation. He put forward five suggestions which are to build a BRICS committed to peace, innovation, green development, justice and closer people-to-people exchanges. He announced eight pragmatic measures to support the high-quality development of BRICS cooperation, which have further expanded the breadth and depth of greater BRICS cooperation, consolidated its pillars, effectively promoted its high-quality upgrade, increased the value of BRICS, and strengthened the self-reliance, self-confidence and self-improvement of BRICS countries.
Only when we know where we came from can we know where we are heading to. China has always cared about the Global South, and taken root in it as well. President Xi Jinping has successively put forward the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, providing China's solutions to eliminate the deficits in peace, development, security and governance. The initiatives have been appreciated and positively responded by the countries of the Global South, and more than 100 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative, supported the Global Security Initiative and the six-point consensus on their common understanding of the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis issued by China and Brazil.
As strategic partners, China and Jamaica are both important members of the Global South. China is willing to maintain close bilateral exchanges in various fields and deepen practical cooperation with Jamaica. We welcome Jamaica to join the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative as soon as possible, boarding on the high-speed train of Chinese-style modernization. Let’s jointly steer to a bright future of peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and common prosperity.
As Chairman Mao Zedong said in his poem, “fear not the strong pass iron-clad on all sides, the summit’s now surmounted with big strides.” The greater the storm of the times is, the braver we must be to stand against it. The epoch calls the joint high-quality development, and we have to achieve that with unparalleled perseverance, courage and adaptive strategy. China is willing to continuously work with BRICS countries and the Global South, including Jamaica, to realize dreams of development and revitalization, to shoulder responsibilities in the transformations of the world unseen in a century, to collaborate in the cause of human civilization, jointly promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.