BRICS countries urged to oppose protectionism

At the latest gathering of the senior diplomats of BRICS nations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi lashed out at the tariff and trade wars launched by Washington, saying that upholding multilateral trade rules is imperative.

"If one chooses to stay silent and compromise, it will only embolden the bullies to push further," Wang warned in a speech at the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.

The United States has long reaped enormous benefits from free trade, and it is "now using tariffs as leverage to extort exorbitant demands from other nations", he said.

He urged BRICS countries to jointly oppose all forms of protectionism and firmly uphold the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core.

During the meeting, other participants expressed support for China's series of global initiatives, and they agreed that BRICS countries should oppose power politics and double standards, according to a statement from China's Foreign Ministry.

The BRICS nations agreed that there is a need to safeguard the legitimate rights of BRICS members and the common interests of the Global South, work toward building a more just and equitable international order, and promote open, inclusive and sustainable development, the statement said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told the meeting that "BRICS is in a unique position to promote peace and stability based on dialogue, development and multilateral cooperation".

"We support diplomacy rather than confrontation, cooperation rather than unilateralism," he added.

Shou Huisheng, director of Beijing Language and Culture University's Turkish Studies Center, said Washington's rejecting the existing multilateral trade system "does not necessarily mean that the rest of the globe is willing to follow its lead in withdrawing from the system and giving up the hard-won gains in globalization".

"On the contrary, what we have witnessed over the past several years is that most countries in the world, especially in the Global South, have been steadfastly embracing globalization and respecting international systems such as the United Nations, the WTO and international treaties such as the Paris Agreement (on climate change)," he wrote in a recent article.

On perfecting the global governance architecture, Wang emphasized the need to actively participate in the reform of WTO, "defend its core values and fundamental principles, and facilitate the resumption of the normal functioning of its dispute settlement mechanism at an early date".

He also called for the reform of international financial architecture to "better respond to changes on the world economic landscape and better serve the economic growth of the Global South".

"Conduct a review of the World Bank's shareholding, carry forward the adjustment of the International Monetary Fund's quota share, and address the historical injustice that the Global South is severely underrepresented and unheard of," he said.