BRICS summit in Russia complete success, says Chinese diplomat

Zhang Jun, Director General at the Department of International Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that the BRICS summit has been a complete success, in Ufa, Russia, on Friday. [Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily]

UFA, Russia - The summit of BRICS countries in Ufa has been a "complete success" because the five countries have deepened their partnership and extended such closeness to their regional partners, said a senior Chinese diplomat on Friday.

"This is among the four reasons, based on which I should say the seventh BRICS summit is a complete success," said Zhang Jun, Director General of Department of International Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to reporters in Ufa.

With the theme of "BRICS Partnership - a Powerful Factor of Global Development", the leaders have pledged to deepen cooperation and enhance coordination within the five countries, said Zhang. And during the meeting with leaders of Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations and the leaders of observer countries, they have shown interests in extending partnership as well, according to Zhang.

"Second, we have started substantial progress in cooperation," added Zhang, listing the establishment of the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserves Arrangements.

"These two are landmark achievements, the bank will be operating soon and it will finance projects around the end of this year.

The third reason, according to Zhang, is that the leaders have announced their strategy for economic partnership, which is 28-page document. Together with 43-page Ufa Declaration, this document is one of the most important outcomes of the summit.

"In this document, we have defined the economic cooperation priorities and its a road-map for future cooperation," Zhang said.

The document has defined that trade, investment, manufacturing, minerals processing, energy, agriculture, science and innovation, finance, connectivity are major priority areas of BRICS cooperation.

"Fourth, the leaders have achieved solid consensus on international affairs and have shown their determination in boosting pace and development," said Zhang. "So I have solid reasons to conclude the Ufa summit has achieved big success."