Status and Characteristics of BRICS Cooperation

Even though the BRICS countries have characteristics of their own, one common element they share is that they are all regional influencial countries and can have a constructive effect in their own regions. This influence produced by economic and political status made BRICS countries steady forces in global governance, making them supporting powers in changing the imbalance and difference of global economic and political development. For a long time, the main forces of global politics and economy are concentrated in Europe and the US, developing countries can have limited chances from the global political economic order. As BRICS concept formed, global traditional political and economic order are shifting from new directions, trying to win more outside support and creating new cooperation mechanisms to structure a starting point for BRICS countries' motivation and cooperation.

From the first summit in 2006 till now, BRICS has lasted for 10 years. From topic design, mechanism building to practical operation, BRICS countries have made great achievements. Table8 lists main topics discussed by BRICS in former summits and main achievements. The main characteristics of BRICS cooperation are:

First, the steadiness of BRICS cooperation. Even though in the past 10 years, BRICS countries were surrounded by all sorts of rumors and criticism, such as the theory of “diminishing colors, ” but BRICS countries have been“sharpening a sword in 10 years, ” kept pushing cooperation to go deeper and steadier step by step. In concept, BRICS insists development first, focuses energy in developing economy and improving people's lives; in principle they insist openness, tolerance, cooperation and win-win, focusing on structuring a mechanism and cooperation structure that's all-aspect and multilayer; in moral, they support international justice and fairness, striving to having a voice in important international and regional issues. At present, BRICS has already become an international mechanism with great importance and has pushed for global governance reform and promoting presentation and say of emerging market economies and developing countries. As President Xi Jinping pointed out on July 15, 2014 when he was attending the sixth BRICS leadership meeting in Brazil, BRICS countries jointly voiced their opinions in many important international and regional questions and contributed to promoting world economy growth and completing global economic governance, pushing for democratization of international relations and have become an important force in international relations as well as active constructers of international system.

Second, BRICS is stepping towards mechanization. Since the leaders of China, Russia, India and Brazil first met in June 2009, BRICS has completed the transition from a virtual economics concept to an international cooperation platform. At present, members of BRICS come from Asia, Europe, Africa and America, there are a total of 28 cooperation mechanisms, 14 of which are at the ministerial level and 9 at high official level, 5 from other fields, forming a multi-rail, broad-region, multiple-layered united profit body that covers multiple levels, such as leadership summit, financial commissioners, young diplomats and media representatives, concerning economists, grass-roots representatives, government officials and groups from society and political bureaus. BRICS pushed for the establishment of a New Development Bank and arrangements for emergency fund reserves, and as two multilateral financial organizations gradually became established and operations began filling in place, BRICS complemented and improved the multi-lateral cooperation mechanism and international development organizations under the Bretton Wood System. The establishment and operation of BRICS leadership meeting mechanism not only helps these countries to improve influence and cohesion, but also provides a chance for coordination and a platform for exchanges for the developing countries to unite their viewpoints and recognition when participating in global governance.

Third, BRICS countries can cooperate in a variety of fields. Right now, some of the fields include: economy, fiscal, finances, agriculture, education, health, technology, culture, drug ban, statistics, tourism, think tank, friendly cities and local government cooperation. These fields reflect the interest of BRCIS countries and the regions they represent, as well as developing countries' interest. Of course, under the current cooperation foundation and motivation, BRICS countries cannot cover all cooperation fields and need to make choices, which lead to development of cooperation in each field to be unbalanced, some fields have achieved greatly while some fields not so much. All in all, BRICS countries achieved more development in mechanization of financial field, which originates from the BRICS high-level agreement on fighting global risks, especially financial risks. They cope with development risks brought by outside world to BRICS countries and even developing countries through their own efforts and hope to win development opportunities through self-constructing new mechanisms. Furthermore, there can be multiple goals of BRICS cooperation, which leads to BRICS cannot have development in accordance when cooperating. As regional influencial countries, even global influencial countries, BRICS identity decided the countries cooperate with multiple goals. They need to satisfy their own interests and demands for political and economic development. Second, they represent their respective regions and demand the international society for regional members' economic and social development. Third, they represent developing countries, hope to win more international development space for developing countries. Because of this multiple goal, it decided that BRICS countries cooperate in complexity. When the three goals agree, BRICS countries can push for faster cooperation. But when the five countries cannot reach an agreement under some cooperation goal, then the difficulty of cooperation is increased.