Address at the meeting of BRICS countries’ Ambassadors Embassy of China, February 28, 2017

Since 1 January 2017 the chairmanship in BRICS has moved from India to the People's Republic of China

China’s chairmanship priorities are in many ways consonant with the Russian ones and cover the full range of key areas of cooperation of the BRICS in the political, socio-economic and humanitarian spheres.

At the political level, we expect strengthening cooperation to promote equitable world order, the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, addressing common challenges and threats. In order to strengthen economic cooperation between the BRICS it will be crucial to focus on the implementation of the BRICS Strategy for Economic Partnership, expand trade and investment ties within the association, trade in services and electronic commerce, cooperation in the taxation area. The important task is further development of the New Development Bank and contingent pool of foreign currency reserves. The New Development Bank has approved its first seven projects including the construction of two hydroelectric power stations in northwestern Russia.

In addition, it is anticipated that BRICS will achieve the further expansion of humanitarian cooperation. In line with the Russian initiatives China is ready to speed up the implementation the Agreement on Cooperation in Culture signed at the summit in Ufa in 2015, and to increase interaction in other fields such as art, media, traditional medicine, scientific research, education. Besides, large-scale events are planned in the field of sport, namely BRICS Sports Games.

Apart from that, I am pleased to add that bilateral political dialogue between Russia and China is actively developing, including the level of Heads of state. The next regular meetings between our leaders are coming up. President Vladimir Putin will attend the One Belt, One Road international forum in Beijing on 14-15 May. After that our side will be preparing for President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in July.