Chinese President Xi calls for deepening partnership

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on BRICS nations to deepen their partnership. He made the call in a letter to the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. The letter details China's blueprint for promoting BRICS cooperation during the Chinese presidency this year. China will host the ninth BRICS leaders' summit in the city of Xiamen in September. President Xi has highlighted four aspects for the summit: deepening cooperation for common development; enhancing global governance to jointly counter challenges; carrying out people-to-people exchanges to consolidate public support; and promoting mechanism-building to construct broader partnership. The Chinese president has hailed the achievements of BRICS countries over the past decade. He says the nations have the power to play an even greater role in international affairs in the future. Since BRICS's inception, its economic aggregate in the world economy has increased from 12 percent to 23 percent. And the BRICS countries have contributed more than 50 percent to world economic growth over the past 10 years.