Address at the Sixth BRICS Summit

Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China

Fortaleza, Brazil

July 15, 2014

It's a great pleasure to meet with you here in the beautiful port city of Fortaleza. I'd like to thank President Rousseff and the Brazilian Government for their thoughtful arrangement of today's meeting. Welcome Prime Minister Modi, who too is attending the BRICS Summit. I'd also like to express congratulations on Brazil's successful hosting of a wonderful World Cup.

BRICS country leaders met for the first time five years ago. These countries speak together on many major international and regional issues and continue their efforts to promote world economic growth, improve global economic governance and also push forward the democratization of international relations, thus serving as active builders and a major force in international relations.

In the past five years, BRICS countries have shown comprehensive cooperation in various aspects, covering economy, finance, trade, society and culture, science and technology and more, bringing tangible benefits to the people in all of these countries and strengthening the foundation of cooperation.

Five years' practice has proved that despite the long distance between us, we can speak with the same voice and are headed in the same direction. Even the long distance cannot cut our close connections.

BRICS cooperation is a time-honored process that continues to move forward. We need to work out a new blueprint based on our experiences. I believe this blueprint will help BRICS countries develop closer, more comprehensive and solid partnerships.

This requires us to develop a unique partnership among the BRICS nations. We should adhere to the spirit of openness, bring into play our respective comparative advantages, strengthen economic cooperation, foster the global market and improve global value chains to work together for an open world economy. We should adhere to the spirit of inclusiveness by trying to promote the tolerance of different social systems, different cultures and civilizations, and also boost mutual benefits for different development models. We should carry on with the spirit of cooperation by strengthening solidarity, addressing each other's concerns and deepening pragmatic cooperation, with a view toward pushing forward the countries' economic growth and global governance. We should also adhere to the spirit of mutual benefit, and thus, while pursuing one's own interests, we should keep in mind the interests of others. It's important to find routes of cooperation and engage in honorable interactions between big countries.

Particularly, we should make efforts in the following aspects:

First, we must unswervingly promote sustainable economic growth. BRICS countries' economic growth has recently seen a slowdown. It is a result of both internal economic adjustment and external influences. The next step is to enhance domestic impetus to maintain stable economic growth through necessary economic reforms. We should insist on the concept of inclusive growth, with social policies underpinning macroeconomic policies, weave a firm social safety net and promote the transformation of quantity-oriented to quality-oriented economic growth. We should coordinate economic and social development as well as environmental protection for greater opportunities for economic development.

Second, we must steadfastly carry out all-round economic cooperation. BRICS countries are diverse and complementary to each other in terms of natural resources and industrial structures, and thus there is a great potential for further cooperation. We should try to develop closer economic partnerships, and explore setting up an integrated market in trade and investment and developing multi-level circulation in monetary and financial areas. When it comes to infrastructure construction, it's necessary to develop a large connection network covering land, sea and air. Cultural communication among the countries should also be greatly promoted. We should make tangible efforts to push forward pragmatic cooperation and promote the operation of contingency reserves at an early date. Business councils and think tanks should be given a bigger role to play, so that we can harvest the fruits of their efforts as soon as possible in various areas of cooperation to the tangible benefit of the people in all countries.

Thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, we have reached a consensus on the building of a BRICS Development Bank today. This marks an important and far-reaching achievement in the process of BRICS cooperation, reflecting BRICS countries' solidarity, cooperation and also the political desire for common development. This will not only help BRICS countries have a bigger say in international financial affairs, but more importantly, it will also benefit people in the developing world. Thank you for supporting the establishment of the BRICS Development Bank in China's Shanghai. We stand ready to promote close cooperation among all parties and make full preparations for the operation of the bank as soon as possible.

Third, we must create a favorable external environment for development. The world economy is pulling itself out of the doldrums, providing a better external environment for the development of BRICs countries. However, it has yet to fully shake off the impact of the global financial crisis and thus the international community expects BRICS countries to maintain the momentum of development. We should try to promote BRICS countries' shares in the global economy as a whole, and in foreign trade and international investment, to contribute to strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth around the globe.

We should also try to improve global economic governance, putting into practice consensuses on better representing developing countries and giving them a bigger say, to ensure that all countries enjoy equality in opportunities, rules and rights. We should promote the coordination of global macroeconomic policies so as to prevent major economies' policy changes from negatively affecting BRICS countries.

Fourth, we must unswervingly promote moral leadership. BRICS counties contribute to a positive energy in international relations by upholding justice and being committed to building a better world through equality and fairness.

We need to fully tap into this positive energy and try to uphold justice and practice equality in international affairs. We should actively participate in commemorative activities concerning the 70th anniversary of the victory of World War II, maintain international justice and never allow any forces to overturn judgment on the history of invasion. We should push forward the establishment of a global partnership for development, so as to improve the lives of the poor around the world. As long as the people of BRICS countries join hands with the rest of the world, the road for BRICS cooperation, South-South collaboration and human development will become increasingly wider.

Brazilian friends told me about a best-seller titled Brazil: Land of the Future, which places great hopes on human civilization. I hope that BRICS countries will develop into prosperous, rich, democratic and civilized countries as described in the book, to create a more diversified economic growth model and foster more democratic international relations.

China is pressing ahead with comprehensive and deep reforms, with a view to making the market play a bigger role in allocating resources, developing an open economic mechanism and making the government better function. In 2013, China made itself the largest trading partner for 128 other countries, with its annual import value reaching nearly $2 trillion. China's outbound non-financial investments exceeded $90 billion and Chinese made 100 million outbound trips. These figures keep expanding and are expected to create bigger demand and more opportunities for the world economy.

China's diplomacy acts upon principles, cherishes friendship and righteousness and seeks justice. In terms of the relationship among major powers, China insists on non-confrontation, mutual respect, win-win cooperation and the common route towards peaceful development. We particularly cherish cooperation with BRICS countries, and give priority to working with these countries. We always regard BRICS countries as our good friends, good brothers and good partners.

I believe that China, which possesses a more inclusive and sustainable development of a higher quality–which advocates peace, development and win-win cooperation, and which actively participates in cooperation with BRICS countries–will surely make greater contributions to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.