FOUR-POINT PROPOSAL 

To build the new chapter in BRICS cooperation, Xi put forward a four-point proposal.

First, he called on the BRICS partners to unlock the enormous potential of economic cooperation by stepping up trade, investment, economic, financial, and connectivity cooperation to make this pie still bigger.

They also need to work together to safeguard the rule-based multilateral trading regime, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and reject protectionism outright, Xi said.

"It is important that we continue to pursue innovation-driven development and build the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR) to strengthen coordination on macroeconomic policies, find more complementarities in our development strategies, and reinforce the competitiveness of the BRICS countries, emerging market economies and developing countries," he said.

Second, Xi urged the BRICS members to safeguard global peace and security, and to stay committed to multilateralism, as well as the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

"We should call on all parties to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations and to settle disputes through dialogue and differences through consultation," Xi said, adding that the BRICS should jointly work for a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equality, justice and win-win cooperation.

Third, the BRICS partners should expand people-to-people exchanges and aim at greater people-to-people connectivity and more popular support for BRICS cooperation through extensive exchanges in various areas, in order to "spread the BRICS story far and wide to further enhance the mutual understanding and traditional friendship among our people," Xi said.

Fourth, according to the Chinese president, the BRICS countries should build a network of closer partnerships.

"We may explore 'BRICS Plus' cooperation within the United Nations, the G20, and other frameworks to advance the common interests and boost the development space for emerging markets and developing countries, thus contributing more to world peace and development through broader partnerships," he said.