BRICS cooperation mechanism
BRIC was an acronym coined by the US Goldman Sachs in 2003 to call the four promising emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Foreign ministers of these four countries had their first meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September 2006, and this became an annual event afterwards. In June 2009, the state leaders of the BRIC countries held a formal meeting in Russia, thus starting their partnership under the BRIC mechanism. With the formal inclusion of South Africa in December 2010, the group became the BRICS.
The BRICS mechanism has seen improvements with pragmatic cooperation in dozens of fields such as economy and trade, finance and banking, education, science and technology, culture and think-tanks. Under the inter-governmental mechanism there are summits of state leaders, ministerial meetings, seminars and forums, as well as multi-layer supportive mechanisms such as the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, the Business Council, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the New Development Bank, and the Think-tank Symposiums.
During the 2017 BRICS Xiamen Summit, Xi Jinping proposed the "BRICS Plus" approach to cooperation. He suggested more dialogs between BRICS countries and other developing countries and their organizations to build extensive partnerships, make more friends, and turn BRICS into a most influential platform for South-South cooperation. By early 2018, the BRICS countries had set up some 60 mechanisms for cooperation, covering economy and trade, finance, agriculture, education, science and technology, culture and think-tanks.
The BRICS cooperation has broken the world economic configuration that was long dominated by developed countries, and offers a practical approach for economic cooperation among developing countries for common development. This serves as a strong leverage on the reform and transformation of the international order, and makes helpful exploration for building a new type of international relations.
金砖国家合作机制
“金砖国家”最初是指巴西、俄罗斯、印度和中国四个成长前景看好的新兴市场国家。这一概念由美国高盛公司于2003年提出。2006年9月，上述四国外长在联合国大会期间举行首次外长会晤，此后每年依例举行。2009年6月，“金砖四国”领导人在俄罗斯举行首次正式会晤，金砖国家合作机制正式启动。2010年12月，南非正式加入后，这一合作机制由最初的“金砖四国”变为“金砖五国”。
金砖合作机制建设伴随着务实合作不断健全完善。金砖国家在经贸、财金、教育、科技、文化、智库等数十个领域开展务实合作，形成了以首脑峰会为核心，以部长级会议为支撑，以研讨会、论坛等形式为辅助的国家间合作机制；建立了包括金砖国家银行合作机制、工商理事会、外汇应急储备基金和金砖国家新开发银行、智库合作机制等在内的多层次合作保障、支持机制。
在2017年金砖国家领导人厦门会晤期间，习近平提出了“金砖+砖概念，意在通过金砖国家同其他发展中大国和发展中国家组织进行对话，建立更广泛的伙伴关系，扩大金砖的“朋友圈”，把金砖合作打造成为当今世界最有影响力的南南合作平台。截至2018年初，金砖国家已经建立60多项合作机制，涵盖经贸、金融、农业、教育、科技、文化、智库等多个领域。
金砖国家合作打破了世界经济由发达国家长久主导的格局，给发展中国家的经济合作和共同发展开辟了可行之路，有力撬动了国际秩序的转型与改革，也为建立新型国际关系进行了有益探索。